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 24 July 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 36 27
Rank change year-on-year 0 -9 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,328 749 1,153
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.92% 5.02% 5.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.34% 5.54% 6.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 732 468 745
10th Percentile £403 £400 £425
25th Percentile £455 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 19 21
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.11 £27.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -5.32%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £82.20 £69.69
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%

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 24,865 13,516 18,087
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.53% 92.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,157 8,348 11,035
10th Percentile £305 £215 £213
25th Percentile £408 £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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,874 1,158 2,033
10th Percentile £15.13 £13.50 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.67 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.91
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.39% +7.28%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.87 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.55 £25.15 £40.94
% change year-on-year +73.17% -38.57% -6.42%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 -1 383 £538 -2.27% 227
North of England -18 276 £525 -4.55% 166
Midlands -2 260 £500 -9.09% 76
South West +20 213 £553 -3.83% 106
West Midlands +15 188 £500 -13.04% 56
North West -17 158 £525 -7.49% 116
Scotland +36 99 £436 -8.16% 30
Yorkshire -15 99 £544 +11.54% 36
East of England -15 81 £550 - 42
East Midlands -5 63 £500 -9.09% 20
Wales -6 29 £550 +23.94% 14
North East -35 20 £750 +40.45% 14
Northern Ireland -3 2 £525 +0.96% 33
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 July 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.

1 309 (23.27%) Security Cleared
2 287 (21.61%) SAP
3 208 (15.66%) SC Cleared
4 155 (11.67%) Microsoft
5 142 (10.69%) ERP
6 141 (10.62%) Azure
7 140 (10.54%) Migration
8 137 (10.32%) Stakeholder Management
9 132 (9.94%) Oracle
10 127 (9.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 124 (9.34%) Problem-Solving
12 119 (8.96%) SQL
13 112 (8.43%) Continuous Improvement
14 105 (7.91%) Cybersecurity
15 97 (7.30%) SAP S/4HANA
16 96 (7.23%) Validation
17 86 (6.48%) Workshop Facilitation
18 83 (6.25%) User Acceptance Testing
19 81 (6.10%) DV Cleared
20 78 (5.87%) Agile
21 75 (5.65%) Data Migration
22 74 (5.57%) Roadmaps
23 73 (5.50%) AWS
24 59 (4.44%) Analytics
25 58 (4.37%) CISSP
25 58 (4.37%) Python
26 56 (4.22%) Data Protection
26 56 (4.22%) Power Platform
26 56 (4.22%) Risk Management
27 53 (3.99%) 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 28 (2.11%) Confluence
2 18 (1.36%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.68%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.60%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.53%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.23%) Apache
6 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.23%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.23%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.23%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 1 (0.075%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.075%) SAS
7 1 (0.075%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.75%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.15%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.075%) CATIA
7 1 (0.075%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 97 (7.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (2.64%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.73%) SAP MM
4 22 (1.66%) Oracle EBS
5 21 (1.58%) SAP EWM
6 20 (1.51%) Teamcenter
7 19 (1.43%) Oracle ERP
8 18 (1.36%) SAP FI
8 18 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
9 17 (1.28%) Oracle Payables
10 15 (1.13%) SAP HCM
10 15 (1.13%) SAP SD
11 14 (1.05%) Oracle Receivables
11 14 (1.05%) SAP QM
12 12 (0.90%) Workday HCM
13 11 (0.83%) NetSuite
13 11 (0.83%) SAP CO
13 11 (0.83%) SAP PP
14 10 (0.75%) SAP FI/CO
15 9 (0.68%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 141 (10.62%) Azure
2 73 (5.50%) AWS
3 56 (4.22%) Power Platform
4 53 (3.99%) Dynamics 365
5 42 (3.16%) GCP
5 42 (3.16%) OCI
6 31 (2.33%) SuccessFactors
7 30 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
8 27 (2.03%) Entra ID
9 23 (1.73%) Power Automate
10 17 (1.28%) SaaS
11 12 (0.90%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.90%) Oracle Service Cloud
11 12 (0.90%) PowerApps
12 11 (0.83%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (0.83%) GitHub
12 11 (0.83%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 9 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
14 8 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
15 7 (0.53%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.18%) Network Security
2 24 (1.81%) Firewall
3 20 (1.51%) SNMP
4 12 (0.90%) BGP
5 10 (0.75%) WAN
6 8 (0.60%) VPN
7 7 (0.53%) FTP
7 7 (0.53%) LAN
8 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.45%) VSAN
9 5 (0.38%) HTTP
9 5 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.30%) DNS
10 4 (0.30%) SAN
10 4 (0.30%) Wireless
11 3 (0.23%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.23%) MPLS
11 3 (0.23%) SMS
11 3 (0.23%) TACACS
11 3 (0.23%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.64%) Power BI
2 28 (2.11%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.66%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.28%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.13%) SAP BW
6 12 (0.90%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.83%) Tableau
8 10 (0.75%) Metadata
8 10 (0.75%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 9 (0.68%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.38%) NonStop SQL
13 4 (0.30%) Power Query
13 4 (0.30%) Relational Database
14 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
14 3 (0.23%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 46 (3.46%) JIRA
2 13 (0.98%) Hudson
3 9 (0.68%) Git
4 7 (0.53%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.45%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.23%) Postman
6 3 (0.23%) Toad
6 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.075%) JMeter
8 1 (0.075%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.075%) Yeoman
General
1 286 (21.54%) Social Skills
2 239 (18.00%) Finance
3 115 (8.66%) Analytical Skills
4 103 (7.76%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.61%) Manufacturing
6 37 (2.79%) Legal
7 31 (2.33%) Banking
8 26 (1.96%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.81%) General Ledger
9 24 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
10 22 (1.66%) Billing
11 21 (1.58%) Aerospace
12 20 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
13 16 (1.20%) Retail
14 15 (1.13%) Marketing
15 13 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
15 13 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.68%) Advertising
16 9 (0.68%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.60%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.24%) XML
2 40 (3.01%) REST
3 20 (1.51%) Oracle Fusion
4 18 (1.36%) SOAP
5 15 (1.13%) Middleware
6 12 (0.90%) Web Services
7 11 (0.83%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.68%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.53%) IDoc
10 6 (0.45%) JDBC
10 6 (0.45%) JSON
10 6 (0.45%) LDAP
10 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.45%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.38%) RESTful
11 5 (0.38%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.30%) BAPI
12 4 (0.30%) OpenTelemetry
12 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.71%) Data Protection Act
1 36 (2.71%) Onboarding
2 24 (1.81%) Security Posture
3 16 (1.20%) Operational Technology
4 13 (0.98%) Replication
5 12 (0.90%) AI Agents
5 12 (0.90%) CMDB
6 11 (0.83%) Data Centre
6 11 (0.83%) Product Ownership
7 10 (0.75%) Analytical Mindset
7 10 (0.75%) Cloud Native
8 9 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (0.68%) FMCG
8 9 (0.68%) Management Information System
8 9 (0.68%) Private Cloud
8 9 (0.68%) Public Cloud
9 8 (0.60%) Data Structures
9 8 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (0.53%) NHS
10 7 (0.53%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.99%) Windows
2 42 (3.16%) Linux
3 17 (1.28%) Solaris
4 14 (1.05%) AIX
5 11 (0.83%) Unix
6 9 (0.68%) VMS
7 3 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.075%) Android
9 1 (0.075%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.075%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.075%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.075%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (10.69%) ERP
2 140 (10.54%) Migration
3 137 (10.32%) Stakeholder Management
4 127 (9.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 124 (9.34%) Problem-Solving
6 112 (8.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 105 (7.91%) Cybersecurity
8 96 (7.23%) Validation
9 86 (6.48%) Workshop Facilitation
10 83 (6.25%) User Acceptance Testing
11 78 (5.87%) Agile
12 75 (5.65%) Data Migration
13 74 (5.57%) Roadmaps
14 59 (4.44%) Analytics
15 56 (4.22%) Data Protection
15 56 (4.22%) Risk Management
16 52 (3.92%) AI
16 52 (3.92%) Business Intelligence
16 52 (3.92%) PLM
17 50 (3.77%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 119 (8.96%) SQL
2 58 (4.37%) Python
3 29 (2.18%) ABAP
3 29 (2.18%) T-SQL
4 28 (2.11%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.96%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.43%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.98%) Java
7 13 (0.98%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.90%) Bash
9 10 (0.75%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.45%) R
11 5 (0.38%) C#
12 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.15%) VBScript
14 1 (0.075%) REXX
14 1 (0.075%) VB
Qualifications
1 309 (23.27%) Security Cleared
2 208 (15.66%) SC Cleared
3 81 (6.10%) DV Cleared
4 58 (4.37%) CISSP
5 44 (3.31%) CISM
6 39 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.18%) Degree
9 25 (1.88%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.66%) CCSP
11 11 (0.83%) PMP
12 10 (0.75%) ACCA
12 10 (0.75%) CEH
12 10 (0.75%) CIMA
13 9 (0.68%) OSCP
14 8 (0.60%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
16 6 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.45%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (3.84%) NIST
2 44 (3.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (2.71%) GRC
4 29 (2.18%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.66%) QA
6 19 (1.43%) GDPR
7 14 (1.05%) NCSC
8 13 (0.98%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.90%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.83%) SLA
11 8 (0.60%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.45%) COBIT
13 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.45%) PMO
13 6 (0.45%) RMADS
14 5 (0.38%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.38%) NIST 800
15 4 (0.30%) WCAG
16 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 32 (2.41%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.20%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.05%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.98%) vSphere
6 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.23%) Docker
7 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.075%) Firmware
9 1 (0.075%) IAG
9 1 (0.075%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.075%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.66%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.58%) Terraform
3 19 (1.43%) Ansible
4 13 (0.98%) Nagios
4 13 (0.98%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.90%) Netcool
5 12 (0.90%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.83%) OpenView
6 11 (0.83%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.83%) vRealize
7 10 (0.75%) vCenter Server
8 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.45%) Grafana
8 6 (0.45%) NetBackup
9 5 (0.38%) VxRail
10 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
10 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.23%) Oracle Identity Management
11 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 287 (21.61%) SAP
2 155 (11.67%) Microsoft
3 132 (9.94%) Oracle
4 43 (3.24%) Siemens
5 42 (3.16%) ServiceNow
6 31 (2.33%) VMware
7 28 (2.11%) Splunk
8 16 (1.20%) BMC
8 16 (1.20%) IBM
9 15 (1.13%) Ariba
9 15 (1.13%) Workday
10 14 (1.05%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.98%) Databricks
11 13 (0.98%) Salesforce
11 13 (0.98%) SolarWinds
12 12 (0.90%) HP
13 10 (0.75%) Google
13 10 (0.75%) IFS
14 9 (0.68%) Informatica
14 9 (0.68%) Veeam