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 4 September 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 34 26
Rank change year-on-year 0 -8 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,383 803 1,105
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.01% 5.31% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.47% 5.90% 6.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 808 511 682
10th Percentile £405 £413 £415
25th Percentile £459 £489 £477
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £550 £564
Median % change year-on-year -4.09% -2.44% +7.38%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £61.13 £47.74 £55.00
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 - £70.21
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 25,284 13,611 16,411
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.60% 89.96% 92.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,174 8,330 9,753
10th Percentile £304 £213 £225
25th Percentile £413 £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% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,104 1,230 1,526
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.27 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.17 £19.11
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 £78.74 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.13 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -3 388 £540 -1.82% 250
North of England -7 327 £575 +4.55% 272
Midlands +8 240 £500 -9.09% 159
North West -2 215 £566 -1.57% 190
South West +13 206 £550 -8.33% 215
West Midlands +12 170 £481 -12.55% 132
Scotland +32 125 £450 -7.69% 122
East of England -17 96 £565 +2.73% 127
Yorkshire -16 91 £575 +12.20% 43
East Midlands -7 63 £525 -4.55% 25
Wales -15 22 £550 +22.22% 14
North East -29 20 £750 +37.61% 39
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 148
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 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.

1 405 (29.28%) Security Cleared
2 332 (24.01%) SAP
3 270 (19.52%) SC Cleared
4 213 (15.40%) Stakeholder Management
5 188 (13.59%) Microsoft
6 158 (11.42%) Migration
7 156 (11.28%) Oracle
8 142 (10.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 131 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
10 130 (9.40%) Cybersecurity
11 124 (8.97%) Continuous Improvement
12 123 (8.89%) Azure
12 123 (8.89%) ERP
13 107 (7.74%) SAP S/4HANA
14 105 (7.59%) SQL
15 103 (7.45%) DV Cleared
15 103 (7.45%) Validation
16 101 (7.30%) Workshop Facilitation
17 93 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
18 88 (6.36%) AWS
19 85 (6.15%) Roadmaps
20 81 (5.86%) Agile
21 76 (5.50%) Analytics
22 71 (5.13%) Data Migration
23 68 (4.92%) Knowledge Transfer
24 65 (4.70%) Risk Management
25 64 (4.63%) Requirements Gathering
26 62 (4.48%) Translating Business Requirements
27 60 (4.34%) SuccessFactors
28 59 (4.27%) CISSP

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 26 (1.88%) Confluence
2 13 (0.94%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
3 8 (0.58%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.51%) 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%) SAS
7 1 (0.072%) Tomcat
Applications
1 34 (2.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.02%) Microsoft Office
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
1 107 (7.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.31%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.81%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.59%) Oracle EBS
5 21 (1.52%) SAP MM
6 20 (1.45%) Oracle Payables
6 20 (1.45%) SAP EWM
7 18 (1.30%) SAP Payroll
8 17 (1.23%) Oracle Receivables
8 17 (1.23%) SAP FI
8 17 (1.23%) SAP SD
8 17 (1.23%) Workday HCM
9 16 (1.16%) SAP QM
10 13 (0.94%) SAP HCM
10 13 (0.94%) SAP PP
11 12 (0.87%) SAP HR
12 11 (0.80%) NetSuite
12 11 (0.80%) Teamcenter
13 10 (0.72%) SAP CO
13 10 (0.72%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 123 (8.89%) Azure
2 88 (6.36%) AWS
3 60 (4.34%) SuccessFactors
4 59 (4.27%) Power Platform
5 57 (4.12%) Dynamics 365
6 51 (3.69%) GCP
7 49 (3.54%) OCI
8 33 (2.39%) Microsoft 365
9 30 (2.17%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.74%) Power Automate
11 14 (1.01%) SaaS
12 12 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (0.87%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 11 (0.80%) PowerApps
14 10 (0.72%) GitHub
14 10 (0.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
16 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.31%) Network Security
2 22 (1.59%) Firewall
3 18 (1.30%) 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 (0.43%) 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%) HTTP
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.46%) Power BI
2 28 (2.02%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.16%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 16 (1.16%) SAP BW
3 16 (1.16%) SAP HANA
4 15 (1.08%) Oracle ODI
5 14 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.80%) Tableau
7 10 (0.72%) Metadata
8 9 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
9 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
10 7 (0.51%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.51%) Relational Database
11 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.36%) Power Query
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.47%) JIRA
2 11 (0.80%) Git
2 11 (0.80%) Hudson
3 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.22%) GitLab
5 3 (0.22%) Toad
5 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.14%) Postman
6 2 (0.14%) TestRail
6 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
6 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.072%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.072%) JMeter
7 1 (0.072%) Oracle APEX
7 1 (0.072%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 328 (23.72%) Social Skills
2 273 (19.74%) Finance
3 123 (8.89%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (8.03%) Public Sector
5 55 (3.98%) Manufacturing
6 31 (2.24%) Documentation Skills
6 31 (2.24%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.17%) General Ledger
7 30 (2.17%) Legal
8 26 (1.88%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.81%) Banking
10 20 (1.45%) Billing
10 20 (1.45%) Retail
11 19 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
12 15 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
13 13 (0.94%) Financial Institution
14 12 (0.87%) Marketing
15 11 (0.80%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.72%) Military
17 9 (0.65%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (2.96%) REST
2 34 (2.46%) Oracle Fusion
3 25 (1.81%) XML
4 21 (1.52%) SOAP
4 21 (1.52%) Terraform
5 17 (1.23%) Middleware
5 17 (1.23%) SailPoint
5 17 (1.23%) SAP Fiori
6 16 (1.16%) LDAP
7 13 (0.94%) Web Services
8 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.51%) 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
12 4 (0.29%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 44 (3.18%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.95%) Data Protection Act
3 24 (1.74%) CMDB
4 23 (1.66%) Operational Technology
5 22 (1.59%) Security Posture
6 15 (1.08%) Product Ownership
7 14 (1.01%) PKI
8 13 (0.94%) Replication
9 12 (0.87%) Cloud Native
9 12 (0.87%) Management Information System
10 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
10 11 (0.80%) Data Structures
10 11 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (0.72%) Learning Management System
12 9 (0.65%) FMCG
13 8 (0.58%) Private Cloud
13 8 (0.58%) Public Cloud
14 7 (0.51%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (0.51%) Greenfield Project
14 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 58 (4.19%) Windows
2 42 (3.04%) Linux
3 17 (1.23%) Solaris
4 12 (0.87%) AIX
4 12 (0.87%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.72%) Unix
6 7 (0.51%) VMS
7 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.072%) Android
9 1 (0.072%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.072%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 213 (15.40%) Stakeholder Management
2 158 (11.42%) Migration
3 142 (10.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 131 (9.47%) Problem-Solving
5 130 (9.40%) Cybersecurity
6 124 (8.97%) Continuous Improvement
7 123 (8.89%) ERP
8 103 (7.45%) Validation
9 101 (7.30%) Workshop Facilitation
10 93 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.15%) Roadmaps
12 81 (5.86%) Agile
13 76 (5.50%) Analytics
14 71 (5.13%) Data Migration
15 68 (4.92%) Knowledge Transfer
16 65 (4.70%) Risk Management
17 64 (4.63%) Requirements Gathering
18 62 (4.48%) Translating Business Requirements
19 55 (3.98%) Project Delivery
20 54 (3.90%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 105 (7.59%) SQL
2 57 (4.12%) Python
3 29 (2.10%) ABAP
4 28 (2.02%) PowerShell
5 22 (1.59%) PL/SQL
6 17 (1.23%) JavaScript
7 16 (1.16%) T-SQL
8 13 (0.94%) Java
8 13 (0.94%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.87%) Bash
10 10 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
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%) Magik
13 2 (0.14%) Perl
13 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 405 (29.28%) Security Cleared
2 270 (19.52%) SC Cleared
3 103 (7.45%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.27%) CISSP
5 54 (3.90%) BPSS Clearance
6 47 (3.40%) CISM
7 36 (2.60%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 27 (1.95%) CCSP
10 26 (1.88%) Degree
11 13 (0.94%) ACCA
11 13 (0.94%) CIMA
12 11 (0.80%) PMP
13 10 (0.72%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.72%) CRISC
14 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.58%) CCSK
14 8 (0.58%) CEH
14 8 (0.58%) OSCP
14 8 (0.58%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.40%) NIST
2 44 (3.18%) GRC
3 37 (2.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.53%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.59%) QA
6 16 (1.16%) SLA
7 15 (1.08%) NCSC
8 14 (1.01%) GDPR
9 13 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
10 10 (0.72%) PCI DSS
10 10 (0.72%) PMO
11 9 (0.65%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.51%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.43%) COBIT
13 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 5 (0.36%) RMADS
14 5 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.29%) WCAG
16 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 48 (3.47%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (1.08%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (0.80%) vSphere
6 9 (0.65%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
10 1 (0.072%) NFS
10 1 (0.072%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 26 (1.88%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.30%) Ansible
3 11 (0.80%) Nagios
3 11 (0.80%) vRealize
3 11 (0.80%) ZABBIX
4 10 (0.72%) Netcool
4 10 (0.72%) Tivoli
4 10 (0.72%) vCenter Server
5 9 (0.65%) OpenView
5 9 (0.65%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 7 (0.51%) Grafana
7 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.43%) VxRail
8 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.29%) NetBackup
8 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.29%) SCCM
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 332 (24.01%) SAP
2 188 (13.59%) Microsoft
3 156 (11.28%) Oracle
4 58 (4.19%) ServiceNow
5 32 (2.31%) VMware
6 26 (1.88%) Splunk
7 20 (1.45%) Salesforce
7 20 (1.45%) Workday
8 18 (1.30%) Ariba
9 16 (1.16%) BMC
10 15 (1.08%) Databricks
11 14 (1.01%) JD Edwards
12 12 (0.87%) IBM
13 11 (0.80%) CyberArk
13 11 (0.80%) SolarWinds
14 10 (0.72%) HP
15 9 (0.65%) Informatica
16 8 (0.58%) Cisco
16 8 (0.58%) Google
16 8 (0.58%) Veeam