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 £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 September 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 34 26
Rank change year-on-year -2 -8 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,388 825 1,113
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.94% 5.34% 6.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.41% 5.95% 6.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 813 527 680
10th Percentile £405 £413 £418
25th Percentile £461 £481 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £567
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% -3.04% +8.05%
75th Percentile £638 £627 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +1.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 20 19
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.31 £52.32
25th Percentile £61.13 £49.50 £55.47
Median hourly rate £76.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £84.63 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £100.80 £81.85 £70.72
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -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 25,678 13,862 16,491
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.44% 89.81% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,330 8,505 9,652
10th Percentile £303 £213 £225
25th Percentile £413 £363 £378
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% -1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,223 1,244 1,486
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.27 £14.28
25th Percentile £19.34 £16.17 £19.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +12.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £71.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -3 391 £545 -0.91% 220
North of England -11 324 £575 +4.55% 129
Midlands +1 232 £500 -9.09% 82
North West -4 210 £567 -1.39% 81
South West +13 207 £550 -8.33% 126
West Midlands +6 163 £495 -10.00% 68
Scotland +22 128 £450 -10.00% 55
East of England -13 103 £565 +2.73% 61
Yorkshire -19 93 £575 +21.05% 20
East Midlands -8 62 £525 -4.55% 13
Wales -12 22 £550 +22.22% 16
North East -38 20 £750 +37.61% 28
Channel Islands -3 2 £600 - 4
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 56
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 412 (29.68%) Security Cleared
2 334 (24.06%) SAP
3 275 (19.81%) SC Cleared
4 215 (15.49%) Stakeholder Management
5 191 (13.76%) Microsoft
6 164 (11.82%) Migration
7 157 (11.31%) Oracle
8 142 (10.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 131 (9.44%) Cybersecurity
10 129 (9.29%) Problem-Solving
11 125 (9.01%) Azure
12 124 (8.93%) Continuous Improvement
13 121 (8.72%) ERP
14 110 (7.93%) SAP S/4HANA
15 104 (7.49%) DV Cleared
16 103 (7.42%) Validation
16 103 (7.42%) Workshop Facilitation
17 95 (6.84%) SQL
18 94 (6.77%) User Acceptance Testing
19 88 (6.34%) AWS
20 85 (6.12%) Roadmaps
21 83 (5.98%) Agile
22 78 (5.62%) Analytics
23 74 (5.33%) Data Migration
24 69 (4.97%) Knowledge Transfer
25 65 (4.68%) Requirements Gathering
26 64 (4.61%) Risk Management
27 62 (4.47%) Translating Business Requirements
28 61 (4.39%) BPSS Clearance
28 61 (4.39%) Dynamics 365

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 (1.73%) Confluence
2 13 (0.94%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
3 8 (0.58%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.22%) Apache
5 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
6 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.072%) OpenEdge
7 1 (0.072%) SAS
7 1 (0.072%) Tomcat
Applications
1 27 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.65%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.072%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 110 (7.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (2.45%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.66%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.59%) Oracle EBS
5 20 (1.44%) Oracle Payables
5 20 (1.44%) SAP EWM
6 19 (1.37%) SAP Payroll
6 19 (1.37%) Workday HCM
7 18 (1.30%) SAP FI
7 18 (1.30%) SAP MM
8 17 (1.22%) Oracle Receivables
9 16 (1.15%) SAP HCM
9 16 (1.15%) SAP QM
10 15 (1.08%) SAP SD
11 13 (0.94%) SAP HR
11 13 (0.94%) SAP PP
12 11 (0.79%) NetSuite
12 11 (0.79%) Teamcenter
13 10 (0.72%) SAP BRIM
13 10 (0.72%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 125 (9.01%) Azure
2 88 (6.34%) AWS
3 61 (4.39%) Dynamics 365
4 60 (4.32%) SuccessFactors
5 59 (4.25%) Power Platform
6 54 (3.89%) GCP
7 50 (3.60%) OCI
8 33 (2.38%) Microsoft 365
9 30 (2.16%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.73%) Power Automate
11 14 (1.01%) SaaS
12 12 (0.86%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.86%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 12 (0.86%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 11 (0.79%) PowerApps
14 10 (0.72%) GitHub
15 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
16 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.23%) Network Security
2 22 (1.59%) Firewall
3 17 (1.22%) SNMP
4 12 (0.86%) BGP
4 12 (0.86%) WAN
5 8 (0.58%) DNS
5 8 (0.58%) VPN
6 7 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.43%) LAN
7 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.43%) VSAN
8 5 (0.36%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) DHCP
9 4 (0.29%) FTP
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%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (2.38%) Power BI
2 28 (2.02%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 16 (1.15%) SAP BW
3 16 (1.15%) SAP HANA
4 14 (1.01%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.94%) Oracle ODI
6 11 (0.79%) Tableau
7 10 (0.72%) Metadata
8 9 (0.65%) BusinessObjects
8 9 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
9 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
9 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
11 5 (0.36%) Power Query
12 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
12 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 46 (3.31%) JIRA
2 14 (1.01%) Git
3 11 (0.79%) Hudson
4 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.22%) GitLab
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
6 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.14%) Postman
7 2 (0.14%) TestRail
7 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.072%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.072%) Gradle
8 1 (0.072%) JMeter
8 1 (0.072%) Maven
8 1 (0.072%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 331 (23.85%) Social Skills
2 277 (19.96%) Finance
3 124 (8.93%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (8.21%) Public Sector
5 56 (4.03%) Manufacturing
6 32 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (2.23%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.16%) General Ledger
8 30 (2.16%) Legal
9 28 (2.02%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.80%) Banking
11 22 (1.59%) Billing
12 20 (1.44%) Retail
13 19 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
15 14 (1.01%) Financial Institution
16 12 (0.86%) Marketing
17 11 (0.79%) Aerospace
17 11 (0.79%) Military
18 9 (0.65%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.10%) REST
2 35 (2.52%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.59%) SOAP
4 21 (1.51%) Terraform
5 18 (1.30%) Middleware
6 17 (1.22%) LDAP
6 17 (1.22%) SailPoint
6 17 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
6 17 (1.22%) XML
7 15 (1.08%) Web Services
8 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.50%) SAP Basis
10 6 (0.43%) EDI
10 6 (0.43%) IDoc
10 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.36%) JDBC
11 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.36%) RESTful
11 5 (0.36%) SLSA
11 5 (0.36%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 45 (3.24%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.95%) Data Protection Act
3 25 (1.80%) Operational Technology
4 24 (1.73%) CMDB
4 24 (1.73%) Security Posture
5 15 (1.08%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.01%) PKI
7 13 (0.94%) Replication
8 12 (0.86%) Cloud Native
9 11 (0.79%) Data Centre
9 11 (0.79%) Data Structures
9 11 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (0.79%) Management Information System
10 10 (0.72%) Learning Management System
11 9 (0.65%) FMCG
12 8 (0.58%) Private Cloud
12 8 (0.58%) Public Cloud
13 7 (0.50%) Greenfield Project
13 7 (0.50%) Hybrid Cloud
13 7 (0.50%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 57 (4.11%) Windows
2 40 (2.88%) Linux
3 17 (1.22%) Solaris
4 12 (0.86%) Windows Server
5 11 (0.79%) AIX
6 10 (0.72%) Unix
7 5 (0.36%) VMS
8 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.072%) Android
10 1 (0.072%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.072%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 215 (15.49%) Stakeholder Management
2 164 (11.82%) Migration
3 142 (10.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 131 (9.44%) Cybersecurity
5 129 (9.29%) Problem-Solving
6 124 (8.93%) Continuous Improvement
7 121 (8.72%) ERP
8 103 (7.42%) Validation
8 103 (7.42%) Workshop Facilitation
9 94 (6.77%) User Acceptance Testing
10 85 (6.12%) Roadmaps
11 83 (5.98%) Agile
12 78 (5.62%) Analytics
13 74 (5.33%) Data Migration
14 69 (4.97%) Knowledge Transfer
15 65 (4.68%) Requirements Gathering
16 64 (4.61%) Risk Management
17 62 (4.47%) Translating Business Requirements
18 58 (4.18%) CI/CD
19 54 (3.89%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 95 (6.84%) SQL
2 55 (3.96%) Python
3 29 (2.09%) ABAP
4 27 (1.95%) PowerShell
5 22 (1.59%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.37%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.01%) Java
8 12 (0.86%) Bash
8 12 (0.86%) Search Processing Language
9 10 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
10 7 (0.50%) T-SQL
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 3 (0.22%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.14%) Groovy
13 2 (0.14%) Korn
13 2 (0.14%) Magik
13 2 (0.14%) Perl
13 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 412 (29.68%) Security Cleared
2 275 (19.81%) SC Cleared
3 104 (7.49%) DV Cleared
4 61 (4.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 59 (4.25%) CISSP
6 48 (3.46%) CISM
7 36 (2.59%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 27 (1.95%) CCSP
10 24 (1.73%) Degree
11 13 (0.94%) ACCA
11 13 (0.94%) CIMA
12 12 (0.86%) CompTIA Security+
13 11 (0.79%) PMP
14 10 (0.72%) CRISC
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
15 8 (0.58%) CCSK
15 8 (0.58%) CEH
15 8 (0.58%) OSCP
16 7 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.39%) NIST
2 43 (3.10%) GRC
3 37 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.52%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.59%) QA
6 16 (1.15%) SLA
7 15 (1.08%) GDPR
7 15 (1.08%) NCSC
8 13 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
9 10 (0.72%) PMO
10 9 (0.65%) Accessibility
10 9 (0.65%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.50%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.43%) COBIT
12 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
14 4 (0.29%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.29%) RMADS
14 4 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 49 (3.53%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (1.08%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (0.79%) vSphere
6 9 (0.65%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.43%) Docker
8 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.22%) Firmware
10 3 (0.22%) IAG
11 1 (0.072%) NFS
11 1 (0.072%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 28 (2.02%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.30%) Ansible
3 11 (0.79%) vRealize
4 10 (0.72%) Nagios
4 10 (0.72%) vCenter Server
4 10 (0.72%) ZABBIX
5 9 (0.65%) Netcool
5 9 (0.65%) Tivoli
6 8 (0.58%) OpenView
6 8 (0.58%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 5 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (0.36%) SCCM
10 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
10 4 (0.29%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 334 (24.06%) SAP
2 191 (13.76%) Microsoft
3 157 (11.31%) Oracle
4 59 (4.25%) ServiceNow
5 32 (2.31%) VMware
6 25 (1.80%) Splunk
7 23 (1.66%) Workday
8 20 (1.44%) Salesforce
9 18 (1.30%) Ariba
10 15 (1.08%) BMC
10 15 (1.08%) Databricks
11 14 (1.01%) JD Edwards
12 12 (0.86%) CyberArk
13 11 (0.79%) IBM
14 10 (0.72%) Google
14 10 (0.72%) SolarWinds
15 9 (0.65%) HP
15 9 (0.65%) Informatica
16 8 (0.58%) Cisco
16 8 (0.58%) Veeam