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 16 February 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 33 33
Rank change year-on-year -3 0 +28
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,048 732 1,031
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.27% 5.46% 4.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.79% 5.90% 5.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 624 449 700
10th Percentile £403 £413 £375
25th Percentile £469 £494 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £537
Median % change year-on-year - +2.42% -2.36%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £709 £719
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 11 28
10th Percentile - £70.00 £37.63
25th Percentile £56.25 £72.97 £52.72
Median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.79
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% +33.52% -4.46%
75th Percentile £60.00 £86.00 £78.00
90th Percentile £83.45 £86.25 £87.30
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £85.00 £63.00
% change year-on-year -32.35% +34.92% -10.00%

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 18,087 12,407 19,566
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.97% 92.49% 93.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,889 7,472 12,256
10th Percentile £220 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £475 £489
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -2.86% -2.20%
75th Percentile £576 £588 £598
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,932 625 1,918
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.23 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.32 £20.48 £16.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £61.84 £65.00 £61.93
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £72.58
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.54 £35.00
% change year-on-year -10.55% -4.17% -5.74%

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 16 February 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 -5 269 £545 -0.91% 328
North of England -7 269 £600 +9.59% 176
Midlands -13 199 £550 +4.76% 99
North West 0 159 £625 +16.17% 116
West Midlands -9 149 £563 +7.14% 70
South West +13 134 £588 +6.82% 122
Yorkshire -1 100 £550 - 48
East of England +1 95 £550 +4.76% 42
Scotland +4 51 £520 -5.45% 24
East Midlands -11 49 £500 -3.85% 25
Wales +9 27 £405 -22.86% 20
Northern Ireland +4 13 £405 -22.86% 21
North East -23 10 £525 -9.48% 12
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 February 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.

1 316 (30.15%) Security Cleared
2 262 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 260 (24.81%) SAP
4 161 (15.36%) Migration
5 151 (14.41%) SAP S/4HANA
6 125 (11.93%) Oracle
7 122 (11.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 117 (11.16%) Problem-Solving
9 115 (10.97%) ERP
10 102 (9.73%) Azure
11 101 (9.64%) Workshop Facilitation
12 99 (9.45%) Stakeholder Management
13 97 (9.26%) Microsoft
14 67 (6.39%) Roadmaps
14 67 (6.39%) User Acceptance Testing
15 62 (5.92%) Data Migration
16 59 (5.63%) Validation
17 58 (5.53%) Analytics
18 56 (5.34%) Knowledge Transfer
19 55 (5.25%) Business Intelligence
20 52 (4.96%) Change Management
21 51 (4.87%) Cybersecurity
22 50 (4.77%) CyberArk
23 49 (4.68%) Cisco
24 48 (4.58%) Logistics
25 44 (4.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
25 44 (4.20%) Oracle Fusion
26 43 (4.10%) Project Management
27 42 (4.01%) Agile
27 42 (4.01%) Continuous Improvement

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 29 (2.77%) SharePoint
2 15 (1.43%) Confluence
2 15 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.57%) Jupyter
4 3 (0.29%) MTS
5 2 (0.19%) CMS
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.095%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.095%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.095%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.095%) SAS
6 1 (0.095%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (1.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.76%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.48%) PTC Creo
4 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.29%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.29%) Revit
6 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
7 1 (0.095%) CATIA
7 1 (0.095%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.095%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.095%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.095%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 151 (14.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (3.24%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.86%) Oracle Receivables
4 28 (2.67%) Oracle Payables
4 28 (2.67%) SAP FI
5 27 (2.58%) SAP MM
6 26 (2.48%) SAP PSCD
7 24 (2.29%) SAP HCM
8 23 (2.19%) Oracle EBS R12
9 22 (2.10%) Oracle General Ledger
10 21 (2.00%) Oracle Cash Management
11 20 (1.91%) Oracle Assets
12 19 (1.81%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
12 19 (1.81%) SAP Hybris
12 19 (1.81%) SAP Payroll
13 18 (1.72%) SAP BRIM
14 17 (1.62%) Teamcenter
15 16 (1.53%) SAP EWM
16 14 (1.34%) SAP WM
17 13 (1.24%) Oracle AGIS
Cloud Services
1 102 (9.73%) Azure
2 40 (3.82%) OCI
3 37 (3.53%) Dynamics 365
4 30 (2.86%) AWS
4 30 (2.86%) GCP
5 29 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
5 29 (2.77%) Power Platform
6 19 (1.81%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 18 (1.72%) Entra ID
8 15 (1.43%) SaaS
8 15 (1.43%) SuccessFactors
9 13 (1.24%) Microsoft Copilot
10 11 (1.05%) PowerApps
11 10 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (0.86%) OneDrive
13 8 (0.76%) Power Automate
14 5 (0.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 4 (0.38%) dbt
15 4 (0.38%) GitHub
15 4 (0.38%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.62%) Firewall
2 6 (0.57%) FTP
3 5 (0.48%) Kerberos
3 5 (0.48%) SD-WAN
3 5 (0.48%) WAN
4 4 (0.38%) Cisco ISE
4 4 (0.38%) Network Security
4 4 (0.38%) SSH
4 4 (0.38%) VPN
5 3 (0.29%) BGP
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.29%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.29%) OSPF
5 3 (0.29%) SAN
5 3 (0.29%) VSAN
5 3 (0.29%) WebEx
6 2 (0.19%) Modbus
6 2 (0.19%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.29%) Power BI
2 21 (2.00%) Oracle Reports
2 21 (2.00%) SAP HANA
3 16 (1.53%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 11 (1.05%) SQL Server
5 9 (0.86%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (0.76%) Metadata
7 5 (0.48%) GIS
7 5 (0.48%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.38%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (0.29%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.29%) SAP BW
10 2 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.19%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
10 2 (0.19%) QGIS
10 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (2.67%) JIRA
2 9 (0.86%) Hudson
3 6 (0.57%) GitLab
4 3 (0.29%) Git
4 3 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.19%) Postman
5 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.095%) Appium
6 1 (0.095%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.095%) JUnit
6 1 (0.095%) MSTest
6 1 (0.095%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.095%) NUnit
6 1 (0.095%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.095%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.095%) Toad
6 1 (0.095%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.095%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 244 (23.28%) Social Skills
2 212 (20.23%) Finance
3 128 (12.21%) Public Sector
4 89 (8.49%) Analytical Skills
5 41 (3.91%) Manufacturing
6 31 (2.96%) Billing
7 29 (2.77%) Telecoms
8 27 (2.58%) Presentation Skills
9 22 (2.10%) General Ledger
10 18 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
10 18 (1.72%) Marketing
11 17 (1.62%) Legal
12 14 (1.34%) Banking
13 12 (1.15%) Aerospace
14 11 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
15 10 (0.95%) Law
15 10 (0.95%) Local Government
16 8 (0.76%) Retail
17 6 (0.57%) Financial Institution
17 6 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (4.20%) Oracle Fusion
2 33 (3.15%) SAP Fiori
3 31 (2.96%) REST
4 30 (2.86%) Web Services
5 19 (1.81%) SOAP
5 19 (1.81%) XML
6 16 (1.53%) BAPI
7 11 (1.05%) LDAP
8 9 (0.86%) SAML
8 9 (0.86%) SAP Basis
9 7 (0.67%) OAuth
10 6 (0.57%) JSON
10 6 (0.57%) Middleware
10 6 (0.57%) SAP Business Workflow
10 6 (0.57%) SAP TM
11 5 (0.48%) .NET
11 5 (0.48%) OpenID
12 3 (0.29%) ADO
12 3 (0.29%) scikit-learn
12 3 (0.29%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 32 (3.05%) Onboarding
2 23 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
4 11 (1.05%) Product Ownership
4 11 (1.05%) Replication
5 10 (0.95%) Data Centre
5 10 (0.95%) Security Posture
6 8 (0.76%) Operational Technology
6 8 (0.76%) Public Cloud
7 7 (0.67%) Data Structures
7 7 (0.67%) SCADA
8 6 (0.57%) AI Agents
8 6 (0.57%) Beowulf
8 6 (0.57%) Management Information System
8 6 (0.57%) NHS
9 5 (0.48%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (0.48%) SCORM
10 4 (0.38%) Contract for Difference
10 4 (0.38%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (0.38%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 31 (2.96%) Windows
2 16 (1.53%) Linux
3 6 (0.57%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.38%) AIX
4 4 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (0.38%) Solaris
4 4 (0.38%) Unix
4 4 (0.38%) VMS
4 4 (0.38%) Windows 10
5 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
5 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
6 1 (0.095%) CentOS
6 1 (0.095%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (15.36%) Migration
2 122 (11.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 117 (11.16%) Problem-Solving
4 115 (10.97%) ERP
5 101 (9.64%) Workshop Facilitation
6 99 (9.45%) Stakeholder Management
7 67 (6.39%) Roadmaps
7 67 (6.39%) User Acceptance Testing
8 62 (5.92%) Data Migration
9 59 (5.63%) Validation
10 58 (5.53%) Analytics
11 56 (5.34%) Knowledge Transfer
12 55 (5.25%) Business Intelligence
13 52 (4.96%) Change Management
14 51 (4.87%) Cybersecurity
15 48 (4.58%) Logistics
16 43 (4.10%) Project Management
17 42 (4.01%) Agile
17 42 (4.01%) Continuous Improvement
17 42 (4.01%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 42 (4.01%) SQL
2 34 (3.24%) ABAP
3 25 (2.39%) Python
4 20 (1.91%) PowerShell
5 7 (0.67%) Bash
5 7 (0.67%) JavaScript
6 6 (0.57%) PL/SQL
7 5 (0.48%) Java
8 4 (0.38%) C#
8 4 (0.38%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.19%) C++
9 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.19%) VBA
9 2 (0.19%) X++
10 1 (0.095%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.095%) Bicep
10 1 (0.095%) C
10 1 (0.095%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.095%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.095%) R
Qualifications
1 316 (30.15%) Security Cleared
2 262 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 40 (3.82%) BPSS Clearance
4 37 (3.53%) DV Cleared
5 27 (2.58%) Degree
6 16 (1.53%) CISSP
7 12 (1.15%) CISM
8 11 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
9 10 (0.95%) SAP Certification
10 8 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.57%) CCNP
12 5 (0.48%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.38%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.29%) ACCA
14 3 (0.29%) CCIE
14 3 (0.29%) CEH
14 3 (0.29%) CIMA
14 3 (0.29%) PMP
14 3 (0.29%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (4.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 36 (3.44%) NIST
3 24 (2.29%) GDPR
4 21 (2.00%) QA
5 18 (1.72%) Data Quality
6 15 (1.43%) GRC
7 13 (1.24%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (0.86%) NCSC
9 7 (0.67%) PMO
10 6 (0.57%) COBIT
10 6 (0.57%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.38%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.38%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.29%) ISO 19650
12 3 (0.29%) SLA
13 2 (0.19%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.19%) RMADS
14 1 (0.095%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 30 (2.86%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.05%) Docker
2 11 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (1.05%) VMware NSX
3 6 (0.57%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 3 (0.29%) vSphere
5 1 (0.095%) Ceph
5 1 (0.095%) KVM
5 1 (0.095%) NDS
5 1 (0.095%) NetIQ eDirectory
5 1 (0.095%) QEMU
5 1 (0.095%) Terminal Services
5 1 (0.095%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.095%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 19 (1.81%) Kubernetes
2 11 (1.05%) Terraform
3 10 (0.95%) PingFederate
3 10 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.57%) Grafana
4 6 (0.57%) Podman
5 5 (0.48%) Prometheus
6 4 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 4 (0.38%) Ansible
6 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (0.38%) SCCM
7 3 (0.29%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.19%) EnCase
8 2 (0.19%) FTK
8 2 (0.19%) Puppet
8 2 (0.19%) vRealize
9 1 (0.095%) Istio
9 1 (0.095%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 260 (24.81%) SAP
2 125 (11.93%) Oracle
3 97 (9.26%) Microsoft
4 50 (4.77%) CyberArk
5 49 (4.68%) Cisco
6 41 (3.91%) Siemens
7 35 (3.34%) Aruba
8 31 (2.96%) Workday
9 25 (2.39%) ServiceNow
10 19 (1.81%) Google
11 18 (1.72%) VMware
12 13 (1.24%) Ariba
13 12 (1.15%) Adobe
14 11 (1.05%) OpenText
14 11 (1.05%) Sage
15 9 (0.86%) IFS
16 8 (0.76%) Atlassian
16 8 (0.76%) Databricks
17 7 (0.67%) Salesforce
18 6 (0.57%) BMC