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 23 July 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 37 27
Rank change year-on-year +2 -10 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,328 746 1,155
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.93% 5.01% 5.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.34% 5.53% 6.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 731 467 745
10th Percentile £405 £400 £425
25th Percentile £456 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £568
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 19 20
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.11 £26.44
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.74 £55.18
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 £71.47
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 24,848 13,483 18,225
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.58% 92.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,141 8,317 11,121
10th Percentile £305 £216 £215
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 £598
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,869 1,157 2,055
10th Percentile £15.13 £13.50 £13.23
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.84 £16.81
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -40.82% +6.78%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.63% -7.70%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -3 383 £540 -1.82% 237
North of England -17 275 £525 -4.55% 171
Midlands 0 261 £500 -9.05% 82
South West +24 213 £553 -3.83% 115
West Midlands +15 188 £500 -13.04% 64
North West -20 157 £525 -7.69% 119
Scotland +43 99 £436 -8.16% 23
Yorkshire -19 98 £550 +12.82% 38
East of England -17 81 £550 - 52
East Midlands -8 64 £500 -9.09% 18
Wales -7 29 £550 +23.94% 17
North East -38 20 £750 +40.45% 14
Northern Ireland -1 2 £525 +0.96% 21
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 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.

1 307 (23.12%) Security Cleared
2 286 (21.54%) SAP
3 207 (15.59%) SC Cleared
4 156 (11.75%) Microsoft
5 143 (10.77%) Azure
6 141 (10.62%) ERP
7 139 (10.47%) Migration
8 135 (10.17%) Stakeholder Management
9 133 (10.02%) Oracle
10 126 (9.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 123 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
12 120 (9.04%) SQL
13 110 (8.28%) Continuous Improvement
14 104 (7.83%) Cybersecurity
15 96 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
15 96 (7.23%) Validation
16 86 (6.48%) Workshop Facilitation
17 83 (6.25%) User Acceptance Testing
18 81 (6.10%) DV Cleared
19 75 (5.65%) Agile
20 74 (5.57%) Data Migration
20 74 (5.57%) Roadmaps
21 72 (5.42%) AWS
22 59 (4.44%) Analytics
23 58 (4.37%) CISSP
23 58 (4.37%) Python
24 56 (4.22%) Data Protection
24 56 (4.22%) Power Platform
24 56 (4.22%) Risk Management
25 55 (4.14%) AI

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 (2.03%) Confluence
2 18 (1.36%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.68%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.60%) WebLogic
5 3 (0.23%) Apache
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.23%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.23%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.23%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
6 1 (0.075%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.075%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.075%) SAS
6 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 96 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (2.56%) 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%) Oracle Payables
8 18 (1.36%) SAP Payroll
9 17 (1.28%) SAP FI
10 15 (1.13%) Oracle Receivables
10 15 (1.13%) SAP HCM
10 15 (1.13%) SAP SD
11 14 (1.05%) SAP QM
12 11 (0.83%) NetSuite
12 11 (0.83%) SAP PP
13 10 (0.75%) SAP CO
13 10 (0.75%) Workday HCM
14 9 (0.68%) SAP BRIM
14 9 (0.68%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 143 (10.77%) Azure
2 72 (5.42%) 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 24 (1.81%) Power Automate
10 17 (1.28%) SaaS
11 13 (0.98%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (0.98%) PowerApps
12 12 (0.90%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (0.90%) GitHub
12 12 (0.90%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 11 (0.83%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
16 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 36 (2.71%) Power BI
2 29 (2.18%) 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%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 11 (0.83%) Tableau
8 10 (0.75%) Metadata
9 9 (0.68%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.38%) NonStop SQL
13 4 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
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 45 (3.39%) JIRA
2 13 (0.98%) Hudson
3 9 (0.68%) Git
4 8 (0.60%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.45%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.30%) Toad
7 3 (0.23%) Postman
7 3 (0.23%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
8 2 (0.15%) TestRail
8 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.075%) Appium
9 1 (0.075%) JMeter
9 1 (0.075%) MSTest
9 1 (0.075%) NUnit
9 1 (0.075%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.075%) Yeoman
General
1 284 (21.39%) Social Skills
2 238 (17.92%) Finance
3 115 (8.66%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (7.53%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.61%) Manufacturing
6 38 (2.86%) Legal
7 31 (2.33%) Banking
8 25 (1.88%) General Ledger
8 25 (1.88%) Telecoms
9 23 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.58%) Aerospace
10 21 (1.58%) Billing
11 19 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
12 16 (1.20%) Retail
13 15 (1.13%) Marketing
14 13 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.68%) Advertising
15 9 (0.68%) Financial Institution
16 8 (0.60%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.24%) XML
2 41 (3.09%) 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%) RESTful
10 6 (0.45%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.38%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.30%) .NET
12 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.30%) BAPI
12 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.71%) Data Protection Act
2 34 (2.56%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.81%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.20%) Operational Technology
5 13 (0.98%) AI Agents
5 13 (0.98%) Replication
6 12 (0.90%) CMDB
7 11 (0.83%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.83%) Product Ownership
8 10 (0.75%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.75%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.68%) FMCG
9 9 (0.68%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.68%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.68%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.60%) Data Structures
10 8 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (0.53%) NHS
11 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
1 141 (10.62%) ERP
2 139 (10.47%) Migration
3 135 (10.17%) Stakeholder Management
4 126 (9.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 123 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
6 110 (8.28%) Continuous Improvement
7 104 (7.83%) Cybersecurity
8 96 (7.23%) Validation
9 86 (6.48%) Workshop Facilitation
10 83 (6.25%) User Acceptance Testing
11 75 (5.65%) Agile
12 74 (5.57%) Data Migration
12 74 (5.57%) Roadmaps
13 59 (4.44%) Analytics
14 56 (4.22%) Data Protection
14 56 (4.22%) Risk Management
15 55 (4.14%) AI
16 54 (4.07%) Business Intelligence
17 53 (3.99%) PLM
18 51 (3.84%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 120 (9.04%) SQL
2 58 (4.37%) Python
3 29 (2.18%) ABAP
3 29 (2.18%) T-SQL
4 28 (2.11%) PowerShell
5 27 (2.03%) 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%) C#
10 6 (0.45%) R
11 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) VBScript
13 1 (0.075%) REXX
13 1 (0.075%) VB
Qualifications
1 307 (23.12%) Security Cleared
2 207 (15.59%) 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 30 (2.26%) Degree
9 25 (1.88%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.66%) CCSP
11 11 (0.83%) PMP
12 10 (0.75%) CEH
13 9 (0.68%) OSCP
14 8 (0.60%) ACCA
14 8 (0.60%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.60%) CIMA
14 8 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
15 7 (0.53%) 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 21 (1.58%) 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%) ISO/IEC 27005
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%) Docker
6 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
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%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.075%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 23 (1.73%) 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%) CEMLI
9 5 (0.38%) VxRail
10 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 286 (21.54%) SAP
2 156 (11.75%) Microsoft
3 133 (10.02%) Oracle
4 44 (3.31%) Siemens
5 41 (3.09%) 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
10 14 (1.05%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.98%) Databricks
11 13 (0.98%) Salesforce
11 13 (0.98%) SolarWinds
11 13 (0.98%) Workday
12 12 (0.90%) HP
13 10 (0.75%) Google
13 10 (0.75%) IFS
14 9 (0.68%) Sage
14 9 (0.68%) Veeam