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 £528, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 September 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 30 27
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,375 889 1,083
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.86% 5.79% 6.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.32% 6.44% 6.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 820 571 649
10th Percentile £405 £413 £420
25th Percentile £459 £481 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year -4.09% -2.65% +7.62%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £719 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +0.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 20 17
10th Percentile £44.25 £29.31 £54.16
25th Percentile £58.97 £49.50 £56.65
Median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £83.94 £81.25 £69.69
90th Percentile £100.40 £87.78 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%

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 25,827 13,795 16,122
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.26% 89.82% 92.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,177 8,477 9,298
10th Percentile £303 £210 £220
25th Percentile £413 £361 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £598
90th Percentile £688 £663 £676
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,377 1,275 1,372
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.43
25th Percentile £19.78 £16.30 £19.59
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £43.97
Median % change year-on-year +69.49% -42.97% +0.50%
75th Percentile £67.84 £51.32 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.58 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.19% -41.51% -3.37%

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 23 September 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 23 September 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 23 September 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 -7 384 £540 -1.82% 450
North of England -26 324 £575 -0.86% 405
Midlands -1 227 £500 -9.09% 235
North West -12 211 £579 -6.57% 242
South West +10 204 £550 -5.58% 213
West Midlands +4 163 £500 -9.09% 185
Scotland +32 132 £450 -10.00% 148
East of England -16 104 £550 - 162
Yorkshire -23 91 £575 +21.05% 91
East Midlands -11 60 £525 -4.55% 47
Wales -11 24 £550 +22.22% 34
North East -29 21 £750 +38.89% 72
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -7 2 £544 +4.57% 91
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 September 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.

1 417 (30.33%) Security Cleared
2 326 (23.71%) SAP
3 280 (20.36%) SC Cleared
4 234 (17.02%) Stakeholder Management
5 196 (14.25%) Microsoft
6 161 (11.71%) Migration
7 153 (11.13%) Oracle
8 139 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 133 (9.67%) Cybersecurity
10 126 (9.16%) Problem-Solving
11 123 (8.95%) Continuous Improvement
12 122 (8.87%) Azure
13 118 (8.58%) ERP
14 112 (8.15%) SAP S/4HANA
15 105 (7.64%) Validation
15 105 (7.64%) Workshop Facilitation
16 103 (7.49%) DV Cleared
17 97 (7.05%) User Acceptance Testing
18 88 (6.40%) Agile
19 87 (6.33%) Roadmaps
20 86 (6.25%) SQL
21 84 (6.11%) AWS
22 79 (5.75%) Analytics
23 74 (5.38%) Knowledge Transfer
24 73 (5.31%) Data Migration
25 69 (5.02%) Requirements Gathering
26 65 (4.73%) Dynamics 365
27 63 (4.58%) BPSS Clearance
28 62 (4.51%) Risk Management
29 61 (4.44%) Translating Business Requirements

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 24 (1.75%) Confluence
2 16 (1.16%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.65%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
5 6 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.15%) Apache
7 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.073%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.073%) JBoss
8 1 (0.073%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.073%) SAS
Applications
1 27 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (1.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.65%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 112 (8.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.69%) SAP PSCD
3 27 (1.96%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.67%) Oracle ERP
5 21 (1.53%) SAP HCM
6 20 (1.45%) Oracle Payables
7 19 (1.38%) SAP FI
8 18 (1.31%) Oracle EBS
8 18 (1.31%) SAP HR
8 18 (1.31%) Workday HCM
9 17 (1.24%) Oracle Receivables
10 16 (1.16%) SAP EWM
10 16 (1.16%) SAP QM
11 13 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
11 13 (0.95%) SAP MM
11 13 (0.95%) SAP PP
12 12 (0.87%) SAP Hybris
12 12 (0.87%) SAP SD
13 11 (0.80%) NetSuite
13 11 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 122 (8.87%) Azure
2 84 (6.11%) AWS
3 65 (4.73%) Dynamics 365
4 59 (4.29%) Power Platform
4 59 (4.29%) SuccessFactors
5 55 (4.00%) GCP
6 52 (3.78%) OCI
7 36 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
8 30 (2.18%) Entra ID
9 23 (1.67%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.09%) SaaS
11 14 (1.02%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
13 12 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
14 10 (0.73%) Microsoft Purview
14 10 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
14 10 (0.73%) PowerApps
15 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
15 9 (0.65%) GitHub
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.25%) Network Security
2 21 (1.53%) Firewall
3 16 (1.16%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
4 12 (0.87%) WAN
5 8 (0.58%) DNS
5 8 (0.58%) VPN
6 7 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) LAN
7 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.44%) VSAN
8 5 (0.36%) FTP
8 5 (0.36%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) DHCP
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (2.18%) Power BI
2 25 (1.82%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.16%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 15 (1.09%) SAP BW
5 14 (1.02%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.80%) Metadata
6 11 (0.80%) Oracle ODI
6 11 (0.80%) SQL Server
7 9 (0.65%) BusinessObjects
8 8 (0.58%) Tableau
9 7 (0.51%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
11 4 (0.29%) Power Query
11 4 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.22%) BigQuery
12 3 (0.22%) GIS
Development Applications
1 45 (3.27%) JIRA
2 16 (1.16%) Git
3 8 (0.58%) Hudson
4 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (0.29%) GitLab
7 3 (0.22%) Toad
8 2 (0.15%) Gradle
8 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.15%) Maven
8 2 (0.15%) Postman
8 2 (0.15%) TestRail
8 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
8 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.073%) Gerrit
9 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 335 (24.36%) Social Skills
2 275 (20.00%) Finance
3 126 (9.16%) Public Sector
4 112 (8.15%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (4.36%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (2.25%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.18%) Legal
8 30 (2.18%) Telecoms
9 29 (2.11%) General Ledger
10 24 (1.75%) Banking
10 24 (1.75%) Billing
11 20 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
11 20 (1.45%) Retail
12 14 (1.02%) Financial Institution
12 14 (1.02%) Marketing
13 13 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.87%) Aerospace
14 12 (0.87%) Military
15 8 (0.58%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.05%) REST
2 35 (2.55%) Oracle Fusion
3 21 (1.53%) SOAP
3 21 (1.53%) Terraform
4 20 (1.45%) SailPoint
5 19 (1.38%) Middleware
6 18 (1.31%) LDAP
6 18 (1.31%) Web Services
7 17 (1.24%) SAP Fiori
8 15 (1.09%) XML
9 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
10 7 (0.51%) SAPUI5
11 6 (0.44%) EDI
11 6 (0.44%) IDoc
11 6 (0.44%) JSON
11 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.44%) XSLT
12 5 (0.36%) Jakarta EE
12 5 (0.36%) JDBC
12 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.35%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.96%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
3 25 (1.82%) Security Posture
4 23 (1.67%) CMDB
5 15 (1.09%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) PKI
7 13 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (0.87%) Data Structures
9 11 (0.80%) Cloud Native
9 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
9 11 (0.80%) Learning Management System
10 10 (0.73%) Management Information System
11 8 (0.58%) AI Agents
11 8 (0.58%) FMCG
12 7 (0.51%) Greenfield Project
12 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (0.51%) Private Cloud
12 7 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
13 6 (0.44%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 54 (3.93%) Windows
2 36 (2.62%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 11 (0.80%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.73%) AIX
6 9 (0.65%) Unix
7 5 (0.36%) VMS
8 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.073%) Android
10 1 (0.073%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 234 (17.02%) Stakeholder Management
2 161 (11.71%) Migration
3 139 (10.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 133 (9.67%) Cybersecurity
5 126 (9.16%) Problem-Solving
6 123 (8.95%) Continuous Improvement
7 118 (8.58%) ERP
8 105 (7.64%) Validation
8 105 (7.64%) Workshop Facilitation
9 97 (7.05%) User Acceptance Testing
10 88 (6.40%) Agile
11 87 (6.33%) Roadmaps
12 79 (5.75%) Analytics
13 74 (5.38%) Knowledge Transfer
14 73 (5.31%) Data Migration
15 69 (5.02%) Requirements Gathering
16 62 (4.51%) Risk Management
17 61 (4.44%) Translating Business Requirements
18 57 (4.15%) CI/CD
19 56 (4.07%) AI
Programming Languages
1 86 (6.25%) SQL
2 50 (3.64%) Python
3 35 (2.55%) ABAP
4 25 (1.82%) PowerShell
5 18 (1.31%) JavaScript
5 18 (1.31%) PL/SQL
6 15 (1.09%) Java
7 12 (0.87%) Bash
8 11 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
9 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.29%) R
10 4 (0.29%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.22%) C#
11 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.15%) Groovy
12 2 (0.15%) Korn
12 2 (0.15%) Magik
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.073%) XPath
Qualifications
1 417 (30.33%) Security Cleared
2 280 (20.36%) SC Cleared
3 103 (7.49%) DV Cleared
4 63 (4.58%) BPSS Clearance
5 52 (3.78%) CISSP
6 43 (3.13%) CISM
7 35 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.18%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 26 (1.89%) CCSP
10 24 (1.75%) Degree
11 13 (0.95%) ACCA
11 13 (0.95%) CIMA
12 12 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.73%) PMP
14 9 (0.65%) CRISC
15 8 (0.58%) CCSK
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) CEH
16 7 (0.51%) OSCP
17 6 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (3.35%) NIST
2 43 (3.13%) GRC
3 34 (2.47%) Data Quality
4 33 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.53%) QA
6 18 (1.31%) NCSC
7 16 (1.16%) GDPR
7 16 (1.16%) SLA
8 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.87%) PMO
10 9 (0.65%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.51%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.44%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.36%) COBIT
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
15 3 (0.22%) GxP
15 3 (0.22%) JSP 440
15 3 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 49 (3.56%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.02%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.73%) vSphere
6 9 (0.65%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.58%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
10 1 (0.073%) NFS
10 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.18%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.31%) Ansible
3 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
3 10 (0.73%) vRealize
4 9 (0.65%) Nagios
4 9 (0.65%) ZABBIX
5 8 (0.58%) Netcool
5 8 (0.58%) Tivoli
6 7 (0.51%) Grafana
6 7 (0.51%) OpenView
6 7 (0.51%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.44%) VxRail
8 5 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.36%) SCCM
9 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 326 (23.71%) SAP
2 196 (14.25%) Microsoft
3 153 (11.13%) Oracle
4 59 (4.29%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.18%) VMware
6 27 (1.96%) Workday
7 23 (1.67%) Splunk
8 22 (1.60%) Salesforce
9 16 (1.16%) Ariba
10 14 (1.02%) BMC
10 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.95%) CyberArk
11 13 (0.95%) Databricks
12 11 (0.80%) Google
12 11 (0.80%) IBM
13 9 (0.65%) SolarWinds
14 8 (0.58%) Cisco
14 8 (0.58%) HP
14 8 (0.58%) Veeam
15 7 (0.51%) Epicor