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 28 October 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 27 27
Rank change year-on-year -15 0 +8
Contract Consultant jobs 1,313 1,039 1,043
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.66% 6.32% 6.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.15% 7.06% 6.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 742 655 602
10th Percentile £413 £403 £425
25th Percentile £469 £475 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - +4.76%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £632
90th Percentile £725 £716 £731
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 23 15
10th Percentile £35.75 £30.91 £55.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £65.00 £59.13
Median hourly rate £75.00 £77.50 £68.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% +13.97% +4.62%
75th Percentile £82.69 £81.25 £74.81
90th Percentile £89.63 £87.00 £85.50
UK median hourly rate £74.00 £77.50 £63.68
% change year-on-year -4.52% +21.71% -6.01%

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 adverts in the UK excluding London matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
28 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in the UK excluding London matching a recognised job title 25,497 14,716 15,456
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 90.59% 89.57% 92.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,711 9,080 8,843
10th Percentile £300 £210 £219
25th Percentile £411 £363 £374
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £688 £673 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,614 1,399 1,091
10th Percentile £14.09 £13.60 £14.73
25th Percentile £18.25 £16.50 £19.50
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -37.50% -10.11%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £69.65 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £39.50
% change year-on-year +63.02% -36.33% -12.22%

Consultant Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract Consultant job postings 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 Consultant jobs in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 28 October 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 for Consultant jobs in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 28 October 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 Consultant jobs within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 28 October 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -7 376 £550 +1.85% 119
North of England -21 343 £578 -0.09% 91
North West -15 224 £585 -5.65% 42
Midlands -7 217 £501 -12.96% 34
South West +2 180 £600 +9.09% 68
West Midlands +2 163 £500 -11.11% 22
Scotland -1 105 £515 +3.00% 16
East of England -16 102 £559 +1.55% 20
Yorkshire -23 90 £563 +22.28% 10
East Midlands -13 46 £550 -6.78% 12
North East -13 28 £750 +36.36% 39
Wales -22 20 £575 +36.50% 7
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 -
Northern Ireland -9 1 £638 +57.41% 2
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 October 2026, Consultant contract job ads cited 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 Consultant job ads across the UK excluding London region.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Security Cleared32.6%428
2SAP26.6%349
3SC Cleared20.9%274
4Stakeholder Management20.2%265
5Microsoft15.2%200
6Migration13.1%172
7Problem-Solving10.6%139
8Stakeholder Engagement10.1%133
9Azure10.1%132
9Cybersecurity10.1%132
11SAP S/4HANA9.9%130
12Oracle9.2%121
13Validation9.0%118
14DV Cleared8.7%114
15Continuous Improvement8.6%113
16ERP8.5%111
17Workshop Facilitation8.3%109
18User Acceptance Testing7.7%101
19Analytics6.5%86
20Roadmaps5.9%78
21Data Migration5.9%77
21Knowledge Transfer5.9%77
23Agile5.5%72
24AWS5.3%69
24Requirements Gathering5.3%69
24SQL5.3%69
27SuccessFactors4.9%64
28BPSS Clearance4.8%63
29Windows4.7%62
30Risk Management4.4%58

Consultant Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.