Consultant Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Consultant
UK > UK excluding London

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK excluding London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 36 27
Rank change year-on-year +2 -9 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,368 769 1,109
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.02% 5.05% 6.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.44% 5.59% 6.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 774 480 712
10th Percentile £400 £406 £425
25th Percentile £454 £475 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 21 18
10th Percentile £51.30 £29.51 £43.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £51.25 £55.24
Median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.09 - £68.51
UK median hourly rate £59.00 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -15.71% +13.64% -5.23%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 25,132 13,764 16,950
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.14% 90.37% 92.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,202 8,471 10,335
10th Percentile £305 £217 £217
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,998 1,207 1,778
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.32 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.52 £16.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +73.20% -42.71% +17.07%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Consultant within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 6 August 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -1 403 £525 -4.55% 265
North of England -10 298 £550 +2.66% 244
Midlands 0 256 £500 -9.09% 100
South West +18 207 £550 -7.56% 168
West Midlands +16 185 £500 -9.09% 74
North West -11 178 £550 - 163
Scotland +38 108 £425 -12.82% 60
Yorkshire -16 99 £538 +13.16% 63
East of England -21 80 £551 +0.18% 59
East Midlands -4 62 £500 -9.09% 25
Wales -6 28 £550 +10.00% 12
North East -36 20 £750 +38.89% 19
Northern Ireland -4 1 £450 -13.46% 44
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 6 August 2026, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 352 (25.73%) Security Cleared
2 297 (21.71%) SAP
3 233 (17.03%) SC Cleared
4 165 (12.06%) Microsoft
5 162 (11.84%) Stakeholder Management
6 146 (10.67%) Migration
7 145 (10.60%) Oracle
8 139 (10.16%) ERP
9 132 (9.65%) Azure
10 131 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 125 (9.14%) SQL
12 120 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
13 117 (8.55%) Continuous Improvement
14 113 (8.26%) Cybersecurity
15 97 (7.09%) Validation
16 96 (7.02%) DV Cleared
17 90 (6.58%) SAP S/4HANA
17 90 (6.58%) Workshop Facilitation
18 86 (6.29%) User Acceptance Testing
19 85 (6.21%) Agile
20 84 (6.14%) Roadmaps
21 77 (5.63%) Data Migration
22 75 (5.48%) AWS
23 71 (5.19%) Analytics
24 65 (4.75%) Risk Management
25 62 (4.53%) Business Intelligence
26 60 (4.39%) CISSP
26 60 (4.39%) Power Platform
27 57 (4.17%) Python
28 55 (4.02%) AI

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 28 (2.05%) Confluence
2 18 (1.32%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.51%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) Apache
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 1 (0.073%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.073%) SAS
7 1 (0.073%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.073%) Tomcat
Applications
1 47 (3.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.51%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 90 (6.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.34%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.83%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.61%) Oracle EBS
5 20 (1.46%) SAP EWM
5 20 (1.46%) SAP MM
6 19 (1.39%) Oracle Payables
7 17 (1.24%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.24%) SAP Payroll
8 16 (1.17%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.10%) SAP QM
9 15 (1.10%) Teamcenter
10 14 (1.02%) SAP SD
11 13 (0.95%) SAP HCM
12 11 (0.80%) NetSuite
12 11 (0.80%) SAP CO
12 11 (0.80%) SAP PP
12 11 (0.80%) Workday HCM
13 10 (0.73%) SAP FI/CO
14 8 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 132 (9.65%) Azure
2 75 (5.48%) AWS
3 60 (4.39%) Power Platform
4 54 (3.95%) Dynamics 365
5 49 (3.58%) OCI
5 49 (3.58%) SuccessFactors
6 45 (3.29%) GCP
7 34 (2.49%) Microsoft 365
8 25 (1.83%) Entra ID
9 24 (1.75%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.10%) SaaS
11 12 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.88%) Oracle Service Cloud
11 12 (0.88%) PowerApps
12 11 (0.80%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (0.80%) GitHub
13 10 (0.73%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.19%) Network Security
2 23 (1.68%) Firewall
3 20 (1.46%) SNMP
4 12 (0.88%) BGP
5 10 (0.73%) WAN
6 9 (0.66%) VPN
7 7 (0.51%) LAN
8 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.44%) VSAN
9 5 (0.37%) DNS
9 5 (0.37%) HTTP
9 5 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.29%) FTP
10 4 (0.29%) SAN
10 4 (0.29%) Wireless
11 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.22%) MPLS
11 3 (0.22%) SMS
11 3 (0.22%) TACACS
11 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (2.78%) Power BI
2 30 (2.19%) Oracle Reports
3 21 (1.54%) SAP HANA
4 18 (1.32%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 17 (1.24%) Oracle ODI
6 16 (1.17%) SAP BW
7 14 (1.02%) SQL Server
8 11 (0.80%) Metadata
8 11 (0.80%) Tableau
9 9 (0.66%) SAP Data Services
10 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
12 5 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.37%) Oracle Database
13 4 (0.29%) Power Query
14 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.22%) Hadoop
14 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
14 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 47 (3.44%) JIRA
2 12 (0.88%) Hudson
3 11 (0.80%) Git
4 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
5 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.22%) Postman
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
6 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.073%) GitLab
8 1 (0.073%) JMeter
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 304 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 261 (19.08%) Finance
3 117 (8.55%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.75%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.51%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.56%) Legal
7 32 (2.34%) Banking
8 29 (2.12%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.90%) General Ledger
10 25 (1.83%) Telecoms
11 23 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
12 20 (1.46%) Billing
13 19 (1.39%) Aerospace
14 17 (1.24%) Retail
15 15 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
15 15 (1.10%) Marketing
16 14 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.66%) Advertising
17 9 (0.66%) Financial Institution
18 8 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (3.36%) REST
2 40 (2.92%) XML
3 27 (1.97%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.75%) SOAP
5 15 (1.10%) Middleware
6 11 (0.80%) SAP Fiori
7 10 (0.73%) Web Services
8 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
9 8 (0.58%) LDAP
10 7 (0.51%) IDoc
10 7 (0.51%) JSON
11 6 (0.44%) JDBC
11 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.44%) SailPoint
12 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.37%) RESTful
12 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
13 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
13 4 (0.29%) eBPF
13 4 (0.29%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 41 (3.00%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.41%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.68%) Security Posture
4 18 (1.32%) CMDB
5 16 (1.17%) Operational Technology
6 14 (1.02%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) Replication
7 11 (0.80%) AI Agents
7 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.80%) Data Structures
8 10 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.73%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.73%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.66%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.66%) FMCG
9 9 (0.66%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.66%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
11 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.73%) Windows
2 42 (3.07%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 14 (1.02%) AIX
5 10 (0.73%) Unix
6 8 (0.58%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.22%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.073%) Android
8 1 (0.073%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.073%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (11.84%) Stakeholder Management
2 146 (10.67%) Migration
3 139 (10.16%) ERP
4 131 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 120 (8.77%) Problem-Solving
6 117 (8.55%) Continuous Improvement
7 113 (8.26%) Cybersecurity
8 97 (7.09%) Validation
9 90 (6.58%) Workshop Facilitation
10 86 (6.29%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.21%) Agile
12 84 (6.14%) Roadmaps
13 77 (5.63%) Data Migration
14 71 (5.19%) Analytics
15 65 (4.75%) Risk Management
16 62 (4.53%) Business Intelligence
17 55 (4.02%) AI
18 54 (3.95%) Workflow
19 53 (3.87%) Knowledge Transfer
20 52 (3.80%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 125 (9.14%) SQL
2 57 (4.17%) Python
3 31 (2.27%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.12%) PowerShell
5 28 (2.05%) ABAP
6 25 (1.83%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.39%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.95%) Java
8 13 (0.95%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.88%) Bash
10 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.44%) C#
11 6 (0.44%) R
12 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.15%) Groovy
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.15%) VBScript
13 1 (0.073%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 352 (25.73%) Security Cleared
2 233 (17.03%) SC Cleared
3 96 (7.02%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.39%) CISSP
5 45 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 45 (3.29%) CISM
6 33 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (2.27%) Degree
8 27 (1.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (1.68%) CCSP
10 13 (0.95%) ACCA
10 13 (0.95%) CIMA
11 11 (0.80%) PMP
12 10 (0.73%) CEH
13 9 (0.66%) CompTIA Security+
13 9 (0.66%) OSCP
14 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.58%) CRISC
15 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 6 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.58%) NIST
2 43 (3.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 40 (2.92%) GRC
4 30 (2.19%) Data Quality
5 24 (1.75%) QA
6 18 (1.32%) GDPR
7 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
7 13 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.88%) SLA
9 11 (0.80%) NCSC
10 8 (0.58%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) PMO
12 6 (0.44%) RMADS
13 5 (0.37%) COBIT
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 34 (2.49%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.17%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.95%) vSphere
6 5 (0.37%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.29%) Docker
7 4 (0.29%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.073%) Firmware
9 1 (0.073%) IAG
9 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 23 (1.68%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.54%) Terraform
3 20 (1.46%) Ansible
4 13 (0.95%) Nagios
4 13 (0.95%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.88%) Netcool
5 12 (0.88%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.80%) OpenView
6 11 (0.80%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.80%) vRealize
7 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
9 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.44%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.37%) VxRail
11 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Management
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 297 (21.71%) SAP
2 165 (12.06%) Microsoft
3 145 (10.60%) Oracle
4 54 (3.95%) ServiceNow
5 32 (2.34%) VMware
6 29 (2.12%) Splunk
7 26 (1.90%) Siemens
8 18 (1.32%) Salesforce
9 17 (1.24%) BMC
10 16 (1.17%) Databricks
10 16 (1.17%) IBM
11 15 (1.10%) Ariba
12 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
12 14 (1.02%) Workday
13 13 (0.95%) SolarWinds
14 12 (0.88%) HP
15 11 (0.80%) Google
16 9 (0.66%) IFS
16 9 (0.66%) Informatica
16 9 (0.66%) Veeam