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 5 January 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 32 33
Rank change year-on-year +4 +1 +27
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,034 789 1,027
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.69% 5.60% 5.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.29% 6.06% 5.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 641 486 681
10th Percentile £403 £413 £375
25th Percentile £475 £493 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 23
10th Percentile £63.65 £55.00 £44.44
25th Percentile £68.50 £68.00 £59.38
Median hourly rate £77.50 £73.25 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +5.81% +15.73% -1.88%
75th Percentile £81.25 £82.50 £78.00
90th Percentile £89.90 £86.50 £85.60
UK median hourly rate £72.63 £72.81 £65.13
% change year-on-year -0.25% +11.80% -6.96%

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 16,450 13,016 18,147
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.44% 92.34% 93.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,135 7,702 11,741
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,640 731 1,318
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.36 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.28 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.52 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.21% -29.96% +68.54%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.93 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.50 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -18.46% -26.97% +36.92%

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 5 January 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 5 January 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 5 January 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 -1 285 £550 -4.35% 299
North of England +3 279 £595 +8.18% 187
North West +1 171 £621 +15.47% 100
Midlands -13 162 £538 +2.38% 128
West Midlands -9 129 £550 +4.76% 82
South West +10 112 £589 +9.53% 182
Yorkshire +6 99 £550 -8.33% 72
East of England +4 92 £550 -2.22% 79
Scotland +5 67 £500 -9.09% 45
East Midlands -30 32 £524 -4.47% 42
Wales +11 30 £405 -32.50% 19
Northern Ireland -5 12 £405 -28.00% 16
North East -14 9 £620 +3.33% 16
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 1
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 5 January 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.

1 336 (32.50%) Security Cleared
2 270 (26.11%) SC Cleared
3 260 (25.15%) SAP
4 150 (14.51%) Migration
5 144 (13.93%) SAP S/4HANA
6 133 (12.86%) Oracle
7 125 (12.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 115 (11.12%) Problem-Solving
9 106 (10.25%) Stakeholder Management
10 103 (9.96%) Microsoft
11 91 (8.80%) Workshop Facilitation
12 82 (7.93%) ERP
13 76 (7.35%) Roadmaps
14 66 (6.38%) Azure
15 65 (6.29%) User Acceptance Testing
16 62 (6.00%) Knowledge Transfer
17 59 (5.71%) Agile
18 55 (5.32%) Cybersecurity
18 55 (5.32%) Validation
19 53 (5.13%) Business Intelligence
19 53 (5.13%) CyberArk
19 53 (5.13%) Data Migration
20 52 (5.03%) Analytics
21 49 (4.74%) Cisco
21 49 (4.74%) DevOps
22 48 (4.64%) Change Management
23 47 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
23 47 (4.55%) Logistics
24 46 (4.45%) DV Cleared
25 44 (4.26%) Collaborative Working

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 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 14 (1.35%) Confluence
2 14 (1.35%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (0.87%) WebLogic
4 5 (0.48%) Oracle Service Bus
4 5 (0.48%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 5 (0.48%) WebSphere
5 3 (0.29%) CMS
5 3 (0.29%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.29%) MTS
6 2 (0.19%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.097%) Apache
7 1 (0.097%) Camunda
7 1 (0.097%) IIS
7 1 (0.097%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.097%) SAS
7 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (1.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (0.48%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.29%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.29%) Revit
6 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
7 1 (0.097%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.097%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.097%) InVision
7 1 (0.097%) Sketch
7 1 (0.097%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 144 (13.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (3.68%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.90%) Oracle Payables
4 29 (2.80%) Oracle Receivables
5 26 (2.51%) SAP FI
6 25 (2.42%) Oracle EBS R12
7 24 (2.32%) Oracle Cash Management
7 24 (2.32%) SAP HCM
7 24 (2.32%) SAP MM
8 22 (2.13%) Oracle General Ledger
8 22 (2.13%) SAP EWM
8 22 (2.13%) SAP Payroll
9 18 (1.74%) Oracle Assets
9 18 (1.74%) SAP PSCD
9 18 (1.74%) SAP WM
10 17 (1.64%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 15 (1.45%) SAP Hybris
12 14 (1.35%) SAP BRIM
12 14 (1.35%) SAP FI/CO
12 14 (1.35%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 66 (6.38%) Azure
2 41 (3.97%) OCI
3 38 (3.68%) Dynamics 365
4 37 (3.58%) AWS
5 31 (3.00%) GCP
6 30 (2.90%) Power Platform
7 28 (2.71%) Microsoft 365
8 16 (1.55%) SuccessFactors
9 15 (1.45%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 14 (1.35%) Entra ID
11 10 (0.97%) SaaS
12 9 (0.87%) PowerApps
13 8 (0.77%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (0.77%) OneDrive
13 8 (0.77%) Power Automate
14 6 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 4 (0.39%) Cloud Computing
15 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
15 4 (0.39%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.84%) Firewall
2 7 (0.68%) Network Security
2 7 (0.68%) SSH
3 6 (0.58%) Kerberos
3 6 (0.58%) SD-WAN
3 6 (0.58%) WAN
4 5 (0.48%) VoIP
5 4 (0.39%) Cisco ISE
5 4 (0.39%) VSAN
6 3 (0.29%) BGP
6 3 (0.29%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (0.29%) Cisco Firepower
6 3 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (0.29%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.29%) OSPF
6 3 (0.29%) VPN
6 3 (0.29%) WebEx
7 2 (0.19%) VLAN
7 2 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (2.22%) Power BI
2 22 (2.13%) Oracle Reports
3 20 (1.93%) SAP HANA
4 15 (1.45%) SQL Server
5 13 (1.26%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 11 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (0.87%) Metadata
8 8 (0.77%) SAP BW
9 7 (0.68%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.39%) GIS
10 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.29%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 2 (0.19%) DynamoDB
12 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.19%) NoSQL
12 2 (0.19%) QGIS
12 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 26 (2.51%) JIRA
2 9 (0.87%) GitLab
3 8 (0.77%) Hudson
4 7 (0.68%) Git
5 2 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.097%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.097%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.097%) JUnit
6 1 (0.097%) LSMW
6 1 (0.097%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.097%) Postman
6 1 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.097%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 263 (25.44%) Social Skills
2 207 (20.02%) Finance
3 132 (12.77%) Public Sector
4 98 (9.48%) Analytical Skills
5 56 (5.42%) Manufacturing
6 35 (3.38%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.90%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (2.13%) Billing
10 20 (1.93%) General Ledger
11 19 (1.84%) Marketing
12 16 (1.55%) Local Government
13 13 (1.26%) Banking
14 12 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
15 11 (1.06%) Electronics
16 10 (0.97%) Legal
17 9 (0.87%) Retail
18 7 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
19 6 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 6 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.77%) Oracle Fusion
2 37 (3.58%) SAP Fiori
3 36 (3.48%) REST
4 27 (2.61%) Web Services
5 25 (2.42%) SOAP
6 22 (2.13%) XML
7 13 (1.26%) LDAP
7 13 (1.26%) Middleware
7 13 (1.26%) OAuth
8 12 (1.16%) BAPI
8 12 (1.16%) SAP Basis
9 11 (1.06%) JSON
10 10 (0.97%) SAML
11 8 (0.77%) .NET
12 7 (0.68%) HTML
12 7 (0.68%) OAuth2
12 7 (0.68%) SAP TM
13 6 (0.58%) Node.js
13 6 (0.58%) SAP Business Workflow
14 5 (0.48%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 37 (3.58%) Onboarding
2 27 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (1.35%) Product Ownership
4 12 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (1.16%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.06%) Data Centre
5 11 (1.06%) Replication
6 8 (0.77%) Data Structures
6 8 (0.77%) Management Information System
7 7 (0.68%) Cloud Native
8 6 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (0.58%) Operational Technology
8 6 (0.58%) SCADA
9 5 (0.48%) FMCG
9 5 (0.48%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (0.48%) SCORM
9 5 (0.48%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.39%) IoT
10 4 (0.39%) Private Cloud
10 4 (0.39%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 31 (3.00%) Windows
2 22 (2.13%) Linux
3 7 (0.68%) AIX
3 7 (0.68%) Solaris
4 6 (0.58%) Unix
4 6 (0.58%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.48%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.39%) VMS
7 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.097%) CentOS
8 1 (0.097%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (14.51%) Migration
2 125 (12.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 115 (11.12%) Problem-Solving
4 106 (10.25%) Stakeholder Management
5 91 (8.80%) Workshop Facilitation
6 82 (7.93%) ERP
7 76 (7.35%) Roadmaps
8 65 (6.29%) User Acceptance Testing
9 62 (6.00%) Knowledge Transfer
10 59 (5.71%) Agile
11 55 (5.32%) Cybersecurity
11 55 (5.32%) Validation
12 53 (5.13%) Business Intelligence
12 53 (5.13%) Data Migration
13 52 (5.03%) Analytics
14 49 (4.74%) DevOps
15 48 (4.64%) Change Management
16 47 (4.55%) Logistics
17 44 (4.26%) Collaborative Working
17 44 (4.26%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 44 (4.26%) SQL
2 38 (3.68%) ABAP
3 26 (2.51%) Python
4 23 (2.22%) PowerShell
5 10 (0.97%) JavaScript
6 9 (0.87%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.77%) Bash
7 8 (0.77%) Java
8 7 (0.68%) Groovy
9 5 (0.48%) C
9 5 (0.48%) C++
10 4 (0.39%) PHP
11 3 (0.29%) C#
11 3 (0.29%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.29%) VBA
12 2 (0.19%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.19%) X++
13 1 (0.097%) R
13 1 (0.097%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 336 (32.50%) Security Cleared
2 270 (26.11%) SC Cleared
3 47 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
4 46 (4.45%) DV Cleared
5 26 (2.51%) Degree
6 22 (2.13%) CISSP
7 18 (1.74%) CISM
8 12 (1.16%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
8 12 (1.16%) SAP Certification
9 8 (0.77%) CCNP
10 4 (0.39%) ACCA
10 4 (0.39%) CCIE
10 4 (0.39%) CEH
10 4 (0.39%) CESG Certified Professional
10 4 (0.39%) CIMA
10 4 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.29%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 3 (0.29%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 3 (0.29%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (3.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 31 (3.00%) NIST
3 28 (2.71%) QA
4 24 (2.32%) GDPR
5 18 (1.74%) Data Quality
6 17 (1.64%) GRC
7 12 (1.16%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (0.87%) NCSC
9 8 (0.77%) PMO
10 6 (0.58%) RMADS
10 6 (0.58%) SOC 2
11 5 (0.48%) COBIT
11 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.48%) JSP 440
11 5 (0.48%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.39%) NIST 800
13 3 (0.29%) ISO 19650
13 3 (0.29%) SLA
14 2 (0.19%) Accessibility
System Software
1 31 (3.00%) Active Directory
2 12 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (1.16%) VMware NSX
3 9 (0.87%) Docker
4 4 (0.39%) vSphere
5 3 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 3 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.097%) Ceph
6 1 (0.097%) Firmware
6 1 (0.097%) IAG
6 1 (0.097%) KVM
6 1 (0.097%) NDS
6 1 (0.097%) NetIQ eDirectory
6 1 (0.097%) QEMU
6 1 (0.097%) Terminal Services
6 1 (0.097%) UAG
6 1 (0.097%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (1.74%) Kubernetes
2 16 (1.55%) Terraform
3 11 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (0.97%) PingFederate
5 8 (0.77%) Grafana
5 8 (0.77%) SCCM
6 7 (0.68%) Ansible
6 7 (0.68%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.29%) Podman
10 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
10 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
10 2 (0.19%) EnCase
10 2 (0.19%) FTK
10 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
10 2 (0.19%) vRealize
11 1 (0.097%) Control-M
11 1 (0.097%) Istio
11 1 (0.097%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 260 (25.15%) SAP
2 133 (12.86%) Oracle
3 103 (9.96%) Microsoft
4 53 (5.13%) CyberArk
5 49 (4.74%) Cisco
6 34 (3.29%) Aruba
7 32 (3.09%) ServiceNow
8 24 (2.32%) Workday
9 20 (1.93%) Google
10 19 (1.84%) VMware
11 14 (1.35%) Adobe
12 12 (1.16%) Ariba
12 12 (1.16%) OpenText
12 12 (1.16%) Salesforce
13 11 (1.06%) Dynatrace
14 10 (0.97%) BMC
15 9 (0.87%) EMC
15 9 (0.87%) Remedy
16 8 (0.77%) Atlassian
16 8 (0.77%) IFS