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 £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 February 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 33 34
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +27
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,039 762 1,040
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.32% 5.64% 4.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.86% 6.10% 5.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 632 473 697
10th Percentile £403 £413 £378
25th Percentile £469 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £714
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -0.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 11 29
10th Percentile - £71.19 £39.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.19 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.79
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% +33.52% -5.43%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £78.00
90th Percentile £80.35 £86.25 £87.20
UK median hourly rate £58.75 £82.50 £63.29
% change year-on-year -28.79% +30.35% -6.93%

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 17,734 12,498 19,587
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.83% 92.48% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,793 7,465 12,356
10th Percentile £213 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £476 £493
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -3.45% -1.40%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £598
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,848 660 1,890
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.30 £16.12
Median hourly rate £28.00 £31.76 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.84% -11.78% +11.63%
75th Percentile £61.64 £63.75 £62.47
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -9.09% -5.71% -

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 4 February 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 4 February 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 4 February 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 -3 274 £550 - 384
North of England -10 267 £600 +9.09% 215
Midlands -17 189 £538 +2.38% 100
North West -3 159 £625 +16.17% 137
West Midlands -10 144 £550 +4.76% 81
South West +13 123 £588 +11.90% 161
Yorkshire +7 98 £550 -12.00% 69
East of England -1 96 £550 +4.76% 57
Scotland +13 59 £520 -5.45% 33
East Midlands -22 44 £505 -2.88% 17
Wales +15 27 £405 -22.86% 19
Northern Ireland +5 13 £405 -22.86% 22
North East -22 10 £525 -9.48% 9
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 February 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.

1 322 (30.99%) Security Cleared
2 263 (25.31%) SC Cleared
3 260 (25.02%) SAP
4 158 (15.21%) SAP S/4HANA
5 157 (15.11%) Migration
6 124 (11.93%) Oracle
7 122 (11.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 110 (10.59%) Problem-Solving
9 107 (10.30%) ERP
10 102 (9.82%) Workshop Facilitation
11 101 (9.72%) Microsoft
12 100 (9.62%) Stakeholder Management
13 92 (8.85%) Azure
14 68 (6.54%) Roadmaps
15 67 (6.45%) User Acceptance Testing
16 61 (5.87%) Analytics
16 61 (5.87%) Knowledge Transfer
17 60 (5.77%) Data Migration
18 58 (5.58%) Validation
19 56 (5.39%) Cybersecurity
20 52 (5.00%) Business Intelligence
20 52 (5.00%) CyberArk
21 49 (4.72%) Change Management
21 49 (4.72%) Cisco
22 47 (4.52%) Logistics
23 45 (4.33%) Agile
24 43 (4.14%) BPSS Clearance
24 43 (4.14%) DV Cleared
24 43 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
25 42 (4.04%) Collaborative Working

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 29 (2.79%) SharePoint
2 15 (1.44%) Confluence
3 14 (1.35%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.58%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.29%) MTS
6 2 (0.19%) CMS
6 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.096%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.096%) Camunda
7 1 (0.096%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.096%) SAS
7 1 (0.096%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.096%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 19 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.48%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.48%) PTC Creo
5 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.29%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.29%) Revit
7 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.096%) CATIA
8 1 (0.096%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.096%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.096%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 158 (15.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 36 (3.46%) Oracle EBS
3 29 (2.79%) Oracle Payables
3 29 (2.79%) Oracle Receivables
4 28 (2.69%) SAP FI
5 25 (2.41%) Oracle EBS R12
5 25 (2.41%) SAP PSCD
6 24 (2.31%) SAP MM
7 22 (2.12%) Oracle Cash Management
8 21 (2.02%) Oracle General Ledger
9 20 (1.92%) SAP EWM
10 19 (1.83%) Oracle Assets
10 19 (1.83%) SAP HCM
11 18 (1.73%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 18 (1.73%) SAP Hybris
11 18 (1.73%) SAP WM
12 17 (1.64%) SAP BRIM
12 17 (1.64%) SAP Payroll
13 15 (1.44%) Teamcenter
14 13 (1.25%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 92 (8.85%) Azure
2 41 (3.95%) OCI
3 36 (3.46%) Dynamics 365
4 34 (3.27%) AWS
5 31 (2.98%) GCP
6 29 (2.79%) Power Platform
7 26 (2.50%) Microsoft 365
8 18 (1.73%) Entra ID
8 18 (1.73%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 14 (1.35%) SaaS
10 13 (1.25%) SuccessFactors
11 11 (1.06%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (0.87%) PowerApps
13 8 (0.77%) OneDrive
14 7 (0.67%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 5 (0.48%) Azure AI
16 4 (0.38%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.38%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.54%) Firewall
2 6 (0.58%) Network Security
2 6 (0.58%) SSH
3 5 (0.48%) Kerberos
3 5 (0.48%) SD-WAN
3 5 (0.48%) WAN
4 4 (0.38%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (0.29%) BGP
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.29%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.29%) FTP
5 3 (0.29%) OSPF
5 3 (0.29%) SAN
5 3 (0.29%) VPN
5 3 (0.29%) VSAN
5 3 (0.29%) WebEx
6 2 (0.19%) Intranet
6 2 (0.19%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.31%) Power BI
2 19 (1.83%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.73%) SAP HANA
4 14 (1.35%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (1.25%) SQL Server
6 10 (0.96%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (0.87%) Metadata
8 7 (0.67%) SAP BW
9 5 (0.48%) GIS
10 4 (0.38%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 2 (0.19%) EDMS
12 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.19%) MS Access
12 2 (0.19%) Oracle BI EE
12 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (2.60%) JIRA
2 8 (0.77%) GitLab
2 8 (0.77%) Hudson
3 6 (0.58%) Git
4 3 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.096%) Appium
6 1 (0.096%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.096%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.096%) JUnit
6 1 (0.096%) LSMW
6 1 (0.096%) MSTest
6 1 (0.096%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.096%) Postman
6 1 (0.096%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.096%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.096%) Toad
6 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.096%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 255 (24.54%) Social Skills
2 212 (20.40%) Finance
3 131 (12.61%) Public Sector
4 86 (8.28%) Analytical Skills
5 48 (4.62%) Manufacturing
6 31 (2.98%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.89%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.79%) Billing
9 24 (2.31%) General Ledger
10 23 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
11 17 (1.64%) Marketing
12 14 (1.35%) Legal
13 12 (1.15%) Local Government
14 10 (0.96%) Banking
14 10 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
15 9 (0.87%) Law
15 9 (0.87%) Retail
16 8 (0.77%) Aerospace
17 7 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
18 6 (0.58%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.75%) Oracle Fusion
2 34 (3.27%) SAP Fiori
3 32 (3.08%) REST
4 27 (2.60%) Web Services
5 18 (1.73%) SOAP
6 17 (1.64%) XML
7 16 (1.54%) BAPI
8 13 (1.25%) LDAP
9 9 (0.87%) SAML
9 9 (0.87%) SAP Basis
10 7 (0.67%) OAuth
10 7 (0.67%) SAP TM
11 6 (0.58%) JSON
11 6 (0.58%) Middleware
11 6 (0.58%) SAP Business Workflow
12 5 (0.48%) .NET
12 5 (0.48%) OpenID
13 3 (0.29%) IDoc
13 3 (0.29%) scikit-learn
13 3 (0.29%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 36 (3.46%) Onboarding
2 22 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
3 14 (1.35%) Product Ownership
4 13 (1.25%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.06%) Replication
6 10 (0.96%) Data Centre
7 9 (0.87%) Management Information System
8 8 (0.77%) Data Structures
8 8 (0.77%) Public Cloud
9 7 (0.67%) SCADA
10 6 (0.58%) Beowulf
10 6 (0.58%) NHS
10 6 (0.58%) Operational Technology
11 5 (0.48%) SCORM
12 4 (0.38%) AI Agents
12 4 (0.38%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.38%) Contract for Difference
12 4 (0.38%) FMCG
12 4 (0.38%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 34 (3.27%) Windows
2 19 (1.83%) Linux
3 6 (0.58%) AIX
3 6 (0.58%) Solaris
3 6 (0.58%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.48%) Unix
5 4 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.38%) VMS
5 4 (0.38%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.096%) CentOS
7 1 (0.096%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (15.11%) Migration
2 122 (11.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 110 (10.59%) Problem-Solving
4 107 (10.30%) ERP
5 102 (9.82%) Workshop Facilitation
6 100 (9.62%) Stakeholder Management
7 68 (6.54%) Roadmaps
8 67 (6.45%) User Acceptance Testing
9 61 (5.87%) Analytics
9 61 (5.87%) Knowledge Transfer
10 60 (5.77%) Data Migration
11 58 (5.58%) Validation
12 56 (5.39%) Cybersecurity
13 52 (5.00%) Business Intelligence
14 49 (4.72%) Change Management
15 47 (4.52%) Logistics
16 45 (4.33%) Agile
17 42 (4.04%) Collaborative Working
17 42 (4.04%) Process Improvement
18 40 (3.85%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 41 (3.95%) SQL
2 33 (3.18%) ABAP
3 27 (2.60%) Python
4 22 (2.12%) PowerShell
5 8 (0.77%) Bash
6 7 (0.67%) JavaScript
7 5 (0.48%) Java
7 5 (0.48%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.38%) C#
8 4 (0.38%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.29%) VBA
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.19%) X++
11 1 (0.096%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.096%) C
11 1 (0.096%) Groovy
11 1 (0.096%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.096%) R
Qualifications
1 322 (30.99%) Security Cleared
2 263 (25.31%) SC Cleared
3 43 (4.14%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (4.14%) DV Cleared
4 29 (2.79%) Degree
5 18 (1.73%) CISSP
6 14 (1.35%) CISM
7 12 (1.15%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (1.06%) SAP Certification
9 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.67%) CCNP
11 6 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.38%) CCIE
12 4 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.38%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.29%) ACCA
13 3 (0.29%) CCA
13 3 (0.29%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.29%) PMP
13 3 (0.29%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (3.37%) NIST
3 25 (2.41%) GDPR
4 23 (2.21%) QA
5 19 (1.83%) Data Quality
6 17 (1.64%) GRC
7 13 (1.25%) Actionable Recommendations
8 10 (0.96%) NCSC
9 8 (0.77%) PMO
10 7 (0.67%) JSP 440
11 5 (0.48%) COBIT
11 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.48%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.38%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.29%) ISO 19650
13 3 (0.29%) NIST 800
13 3 (0.29%) RMADS
14 2 (0.19%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (3.08%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.25%) Docker
3 11 (1.06%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.58%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.29%) vSphere
7 1 (0.096%) Ceph
7 1 (0.096%) Firmware
7 1 (0.096%) KVM
7 1 (0.096%) NDS
7 1 (0.096%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.096%) QEMU
7 1 (0.096%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.096%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.096%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (2.02%) Kubernetes
2 14 (1.35%) Terraform
3 10 (0.96%) PingFederate
3 10 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.67%) Grafana
5 6 (0.58%) Ansible
5 6 (0.58%) Podman
5 6 (0.58%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.58%) SCCM
6 4 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.19%) EnCase
8 2 (0.19%) FTK
8 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.19%) vRealize
9 1 (0.096%) Cisco UCCE
9 1 (0.096%) Control-M
9 1 (0.096%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 260 (25.02%) SAP
2 124 (11.93%) Oracle
3 101 (9.72%) Microsoft
4 52 (5.00%) CyberArk
5 49 (4.72%) Cisco
6 35 (3.37%) Aruba
7 32 (3.08%) ServiceNow
8 28 (2.69%) Workday
9 27 (2.60%) Siemens
10 19 (1.83%) Google
11 18 (1.73%) VMware
12 13 (1.25%) Ariba
13 12 (1.15%) Adobe
13 12 (1.15%) OpenText
14 9 (0.87%) BMC
14 9 (0.87%) Sage
15 8 (0.77%) Atlassian
15 8 (0.77%) Databricks
15 8 (0.77%) Remedy
15 8 (0.77%) Salesforce