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 29 August 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 33 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -7 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,406 806 1,108
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.07% 5.23% 6.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.54% 5.80% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 816 509 690
10th Percentile £401 £413 £413
25th Percentile £458 £485 £477
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £561
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -2.00% +6.90%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £638
90th Percentile £714 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £59.34 £47.74 £55.00
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 -
90th Percentile £100.40 - £70.21
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.32%

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 25,388 13,888 16,635
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.62% 90.05% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,267 8,508 9,936
10th Percentile £303 £213 £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 £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 3,081 1,260 1,573
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.46 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.30 £18.40
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -42.84% +10.00%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £72.50 £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 29 August 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 29 August 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 29 August 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 -3 401 £550 - 241
North of England -5 329 £568 +3.27% 250
Midlands +7 257 £500 -9.09% 144
North West -5 214 £572 -0.61% 168
South West +14 209 £550 -7.56% 202
West Midlands +15 184 £481 -12.50% 116
Scotland +29 123 £450 -7.69% 107
Yorkshire -16 94 £550 +7.32% 48
East of England -16 85 £523 -5.00% 109
East Midlands -2 66 £525 -4.55% 26
Wales -17 22 £550 +22.22% 12
North East -30 20 £750 +38.89% 34
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 127
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 August 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.

1 414 (29.45%) Security Cleared
2 328 (23.33%) SAP
3 278 (19.77%) SC Cleared
4 206 (14.65%) Stakeholder Management
5 191 (13.58%) Microsoft
6 158 (11.24%) Migration
7 152 (10.81%) Oracle
8 144 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 132 (9.39%) Cybersecurity
10 129 (9.17%) Problem-Solving
11 126 (8.96%) Continuous Improvement
12 122 (8.68%) ERP
13 121 (8.61%) Azure
14 115 (8.18%) SQL
15 106 (7.54%) DV Cleared
16 104 (7.40%) Validation
17 101 (7.18%) Workshop Facilitation
18 100 (7.11%) SAP S/4HANA
19 94 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
20 86 (6.12%) AWS
21 85 (6.05%) Roadmaps
22 83 (5.90%) Agile
23 76 (5.41%) Analytics
24 74 (5.26%) Data Migration
25 69 (4.91%) Knowledge Transfer
26 67 (4.77%) Risk Management
27 64 (4.55%) Requirements Gathering
28 61 (4.34%) Power Platform
28 61 (4.34%) SuccessFactors
28 61 (4.34%) 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 27 (1.92%) Confluence
2 14 (1.00%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.64%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.57%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.21%) Apache
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.21%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.071%) SAS
8 1 (0.071%) Tomcat
Applications
1 39 (2.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.071%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.071%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 100 (7.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.28%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.78%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.56%) Oracle EBS
4 22 (1.56%) SAP MM
5 20 (1.42%) Oracle Payables
5 20 (1.42%) SAP EWM
6 17 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
6 17 (1.21%) SAP FI
6 17 (1.21%) SAP Payroll
6 17 (1.21%) SAP SD
7 16 (1.14%) SAP QM
7 16 (1.14%) Workday HCM
8 13 (0.92%) SAP PP
9 11 (0.78%) NetSuite
9 11 (0.78%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.78%) SAP HR
9 11 (0.78%) Teamcenter
10 10 (0.71%) SAP FI/CO
10 10 (0.71%) SAP HCM
Cloud Services
1 121 (8.61%) Azure
2 86 (6.12%) AWS
3 61 (4.34%) Power Platform
3 61 (4.34%) SuccessFactors
4 55 (3.91%) Dynamics 365
5 51 (3.63%) GCP
6 47 (3.34%) OCI
7 34 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
8 29 (2.06%) Entra ID
9 24 (1.71%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.07%) SaaS
11 12 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.85%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 11 (0.78%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.71%) GitHub
13 10 (0.71%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.28%) Network Security
2 23 (1.64%) Firewall
3 20 (1.42%) SNMP
4 12 (0.85%) BGP
4 12 (0.85%) WAN
5 8 (0.57%) DNS
5 8 (0.57%) VPN
6 7 (0.50%) LAN
6 7 (0.50%) VSAN
6 7 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.43%) SAN
7 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.28%) DHCP
8 4 (0.28%) HTTP
8 4 (0.28%) Wireless
9 3 (0.21%) FTP
9 3 (0.21%) MPLS
9 3 (0.21%) SMS
9 3 (0.21%) TACACS
9 3 (0.21%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.56%) Power BI
2 28 (1.99%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.21%) SAP HANA
4 16 (1.14%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 16 (1.14%) Oracle ODI
4 16 (1.14%) SAP BW
5 14 (1.00%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.78%) Tableau
7 10 (0.71%) Metadata
8 9 (0.64%) SAP Data Services
9 8 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
10 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
11 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.36%) Power Query
13 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.21%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.21%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.21%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 49 (3.49%) JIRA
2 11 (0.78%) Git
3 10 (0.71%) Hudson
4 8 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.21%) Toad
6 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.14%) GitLab
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 (0.071%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.071%) JMeter
8 1 (0.071%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.071%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.071%) Yeoman
General
1 332 (23.61%) Social Skills
2 265 (18.85%) Finance
3 123 (8.75%) Analytical Skills
4 113 (8.04%) Public Sector
5 57 (4.05%) Manufacturing
6 32 (2.28%) Presentation Skills
7 31 (2.20%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (2.20%) Legal
8 30 (2.13%) General Ledger
9 27 (1.92%) Banking
10 26 (1.85%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.42%) Billing
12 19 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
13 18 (1.28%) Retail
14 15 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.85%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.85%) Financial Institution
15 12 (0.85%) Marketing
16 9 (0.64%) Advertising
16 9 (0.64%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (3.13%) REST
2 33 (2.35%) Oracle Fusion
3 29 (2.06%) XML
4 22 (1.56%) Terraform
5 21 (1.49%) SOAP
6 17 (1.21%) SAP Fiori
7 16 (1.14%) Middleware
8 15 (1.07%) LDAP
9 14 (1.00%) SailPoint
10 12 (0.85%) Web Services
11 9 (0.64%) SAP PI
12 8 (0.57%) SAP Basis
13 7 (0.50%) IDoc
14 6 (0.43%) EDI
14 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
15 5 (0.36%) JDBC
15 5 (0.36%) JSON
15 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
15 5 (0.36%) RESTful
15 5 (0.36%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 43 (3.06%) Onboarding
2 29 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
3 24 (1.71%) CMDB
4 23 (1.64%) Operational Technology
4 23 (1.64%) Security Posture
5 15 (1.07%) Product Ownership
5 15 (1.07%) Replication
6 13 (0.92%) Management Information System
6 13 (0.92%) PKI
7 11 (0.78%) Cloud Native
7 11 (0.78%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.78%) Data Structures
8 10 (0.71%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (0.71%) Learning Management System
9 9 (0.64%) FMCG
9 9 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
10 8 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 61 (4.34%) Windows
2 47 (3.34%) Linux
3 17 (1.21%) Solaris
4 14 (1.00%) AIX
5 12 (0.85%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.71%) Unix
7 8 (0.57%) VMS
8 4 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.071%) Android
10 1 (0.071%) CoreOS
10 1 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.071%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.071%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.071%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (14.65%) Stakeholder Management
2 158 (11.24%) Migration
3 144 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 132 (9.39%) Cybersecurity
5 129 (9.17%) Problem-Solving
6 126 (8.96%) Continuous Improvement
7 122 (8.68%) ERP
8 104 (7.40%) Validation
9 101 (7.18%) Workshop Facilitation
10 94 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.05%) Roadmaps
12 83 (5.90%) Agile
13 76 (5.41%) Analytics
14 74 (5.26%) Data Migration
15 69 (4.91%) Knowledge Transfer
16 67 (4.77%) Risk Management
17 64 (4.55%) Requirements Gathering
18 61 (4.34%) Translating Business Requirements
19 58 (4.13%) Project Delivery
20 57 (4.05%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 115 (8.18%) SQL
2 57 (4.05%) Python
3 30 (2.13%) PowerShell
4 29 (2.06%) ABAP
5 24 (1.71%) PL/SQL
6 20 (1.42%) T-SQL
7 17 (1.21%) JavaScript
8 15 (1.07%) Search Processing Language
9 13 (0.92%) Java
10 12 (0.85%) Bash
11 10 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
12 6 (0.43%) C#
12 6 (0.43%) R
13 2 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.14%) Korn
13 2 (0.14%) Magik
13 2 (0.14%) Perl
13 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 414 (29.45%) Security Cleared
2 278 (19.77%) SC Cleared
3 106 (7.54%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.27%) CISSP
5 51 (3.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 47 (3.34%) CISM
7 35 (2.49%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 29 (2.06%) Degree
10 26 (1.85%) CCSP
11 13 (0.92%) ACCA
11 13 (0.92%) CIMA
12 11 (0.78%) PMP
13 10 (0.71%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.71%) CRISC
14 9 (0.64%) CEH
14 9 (0.64%) OSCP
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.50%) CCSK
16 7 (0.50%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.49%) NIST
2 46 (3.27%) GRC
3 42 (2.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.49%) Data Quality
5 24 (1.71%) QA
6 16 (1.14%) GDPR
6 16 (1.14%) SLA
7 14 (1.00%) NCSC
8 13 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.85%) PCI DSS
10 11 (0.78%) PMO
11 9 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.43%) COBIT
13 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.43%) RMADS
13 6 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.28%) WCAG
15 3 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 47 (3.34%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.14%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.92%) vSphere
6 9 (0.64%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.28%) Docker
9 3 (0.21%) Firmware
10 2 (0.14%) IAG
10 2 (0.14%) NFS
11 1 (0.071%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.071%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 25 (1.78%) Kubernetes
2 19 (1.35%) Ansible
3 13 (0.92%) Nagios
3 13 (0.92%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.85%) Netcool
4 12 (0.85%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.78%) OpenView
5 11 (0.78%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 11 (0.78%) vRealize
6 10 (0.71%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 4 (0.28%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.28%) NetBackup
9 4 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.28%) SCCM
9 4 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 328 (23.33%) SAP
2 191 (13.58%) Microsoft
3 152 (10.81%) Oracle
4 59 (4.20%) ServiceNow
5 35 (2.49%) VMware
6 28 (1.99%) Splunk
7 20 (1.42%) Salesforce
8 19 (1.35%) Workday
9 18 (1.28%) BMC
10 17 (1.21%) Ariba
11 16 (1.14%) IBM
12 15 (1.07%) Databricks
13 14 (1.00%) JD Edwards
14 13 (0.92%) SolarWinds
15 12 (0.85%) HP
16 11 (0.78%) Google
17 10 (0.71%) CyberArk
18 9 (0.64%) Informatica
18 9 (0.64%) Veeam
19 8 (0.57%) Cisco