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 30 September 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 32 27
Rank change year-on-year -5 -5 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,357 903 1,064
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.79% 5.82% 6.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.25% 6.49% 6.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 806 586 628
10th Percentile £405 £413 £424
25th Percentile £461 £492 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £564
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% +7.38%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £719 £732
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 20 17
10th Percentile £45.00 £29.31 £55.00
25th Percentile £61.13 £49.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% +25.81% -3.75%
75th Percentile £85.00 £81.25 £73.56
90th Percentile £100.00 £87.78 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £62.30
% change year-on-year -1.94% +24.40% -2.66%

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 25,831 13,907 16,028
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.18% 89.61% 92.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,107 8,568 9,105
10th Percentile £303 £210 £220
25th Percentile £413 £360 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £665 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,411 1,296 1,310
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.69
25th Percentile £19.34 £16.30 £19.87
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.08 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.44% -41.69% -2.16%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £66.90
90th Percentile £78.50 £69.83 £74.76
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.84% -41.51% -3.37%

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 30 September 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 30 September 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 30 September 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 -5 380 £540 -1.82% 387
North of England -23 328 £578 -0.43% 388
Midlands -3 227 £500 -9.09% 222
North West -13 217 £585 -5.65% 223
South West +13 193 £553 -5.06% 190
West Midlands -1 163 £500 -9.09% 169
Scotland +32 128 £452 -9.70% 144
East of England -12 105 £552 +0.36% 119
Yorkshire -20 90 £575 +21.05% 80
East Midlands -9 59 £525 -4.55% 53
Wales -13 24 £550 +22.22% 38
North East -28 20 £750 +38.89% 85
Channel Islands -4 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -8 2 £544 +4.57% 102
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 September 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.

1 415 (30.58%) Security Cleared
2 323 (23.80%) SAP
3 275 (20.27%) SC Cleared
4 241 (17.76%) Stakeholder Management
5 195 (14.37%) Microsoft
6 163 (12.01%) Migration
7 141 (10.39%) Oracle
8 136 (10.02%) Cybersecurity
8 136 (10.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 127 (9.36%) Problem-Solving
10 123 (9.06%) Azure
11 117 (8.62%) Continuous Improvement
12 113 (8.33%) SAP S/4HANA
13 107 (7.89%) Validation
14 105 (7.74%) ERP
14 105 (7.74%) Workshop Facilitation
15 102 (7.52%) DV Cleared
16 99 (7.30%) User Acceptance Testing
17 87 (6.41%) Agile
18 86 (6.34%) Roadmaps
19 83 (6.12%) AWS
20 81 (5.97%) Analytics
21 79 (5.82%) SQL
22 75 (5.53%) Data Migration
22 75 (5.53%) Knowledge Transfer
23 69 (5.08%) Requirements Gathering
24 66 (4.86%) Dynamics 365
25 63 (4.64%) BPSS Clearance
26 60 (4.42%) SuccessFactors
27 59 (4.35%) Power Platform

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 24 (1.77%) Confluence
2 18 (1.33%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) WebLogic
5 5 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.15%) Apache
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.074%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.074%) IIS
8 1 (0.074%) JBoss
8 1 (0.074%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.074%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.074%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.74%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.074%) Adobe Captivate
5 1 (0.074%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 113 (8.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (2.80%) SAP PSCD
3 31 (2.28%) SAP Payroll
4 24 (1.77%) SAP HCM
5 23 (1.69%) Oracle ERP
6 22 (1.62%) SAP FI
7 21 (1.55%) SAP HR
8 20 (1.47%) Workday HCM
9 19 (1.40%) Oracle Payables
10 18 (1.33%) Oracle Receivables
11 16 (1.18%) Oracle EBS
12 15 (1.11%) SAP BRIM
12 15 (1.11%) SAP QM
13 13 (0.96%) SAP EWM
13 13 (0.96%) SAP Hybris
13 13 (0.96%) SAP PP
13 13 (0.96%) Teamcenter
14 12 (0.88%) SAP CO
14 12 (0.88%) SAP FI/CO
15 11 (0.81%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 123 (9.06%) Azure
2 83 (6.12%) AWS
3 66 (4.86%) Dynamics 365
4 60 (4.42%) SuccessFactors
5 59 (4.35%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.05%) GCP
7 45 (3.32%) OCI
8 37 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
9 31 (2.28%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.77%) Power Automate
11 18 (1.33%) SaaS
12 16 (1.18%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (0.96%) Microsoft Copilot
14 11 (0.81%) PowerApps
15 10 (0.74%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (0.74%) Oracle Service Cloud
16 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
17 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
17 8 (0.59%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.28%) Network Security
2 21 (1.55%) Firewall
3 14 (1.03%) SNMP
4 12 (0.88%) BGP
4 12 (0.88%) WAN
5 9 (0.66%) DNS
5 9 (0.66%) VPN
6 7 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) FTP
7 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.44%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
8 5 (0.37%) LAN
8 5 (0.37%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.14%) Power BI
2 21 (1.55%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.18%) SAP BW
4 15 (1.11%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (0.96%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.81%) Metadata
7 10 (0.74%) BusinessObjects
7 10 (0.74%) SQL Server
8 9 (0.66%) Tableau
9 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
9 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
9 6 (0.44%) Oracle ODI
9 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
10 5 (0.37%) Power Query
11 4 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.22%) BigQuery
12 3 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
12 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 46 (3.39%) JIRA
2 16 (1.18%) Git
3 7 (0.52%) Hudson
3 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.37%) Oracle Forms
5 4 (0.29%) GitLab
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
7 2 (0.15%) Gradle
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) Maven
7 2 (0.15%) Postman
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.074%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.074%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.074%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.074%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 335 (24.69%) Social Skills
2 277 (20.41%) Finance
3 126 (9.29%) Public Sector
4 110 (8.11%) Analytical Skills
5 62 (4.57%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (2.36%) Legal
7 32 (2.36%) Telecoms
8 30 (2.21%) General Ledger
9 29 (2.14%) Billing
9 29 (2.14%) Presentation Skills
10 23 (1.69%) Banking
11 20 (1.47%) Retail
12 19 (1.40%) Influencing Skills
13 14 (1.03%) Aerospace
13 14 (1.03%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.03%) Marketing
13 14 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.88%) Military
15 8 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (2.95%) REST
2 35 (2.58%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.62%) SOAP
4 20 (1.47%) Middleware
4 20 (1.47%) SailPoint
4 20 (1.47%) Terraform
4 20 (1.47%) Web Services
5 18 (1.33%) LDAP
6 17 (1.25%) SAP Fiori
6 17 (1.25%) XML
7 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
7 9 (0.66%) SAPUI5
8 8 (0.59%) XSLT
9 6 (0.44%) JSON
9 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
9 6 (0.44%) OAuth
10 5 (0.37%) Jakarta EE
10 5 (0.37%) JDBC
10 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
10 5 (0.37%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.39%) Onboarding
2 29 (2.14%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
4 24 (1.77%) Security Posture
5 23 (1.69%) CMDB
6 14 (1.03%) Data Structures
6 14 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
6 14 (1.03%) PKI
6 14 (1.03%) Product Ownership
7 12 (0.88%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.81%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.81%) Learning Management System
8 11 (0.81%) Management Information System
9 8 (0.59%) AI Agents
10 7 (0.52%) FMCG
10 7 (0.52%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (0.52%) Replication
10 7 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (0.44%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.44%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 55 (4.05%) Windows
2 34 (2.51%) Linux
3 17 (1.25%) Solaris
4 14 (1.03%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.66%) Unix
6 8 (0.59%) AIX
7 5 (0.37%) VMS
8 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.074%) Android
10 1 (0.074%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.074%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (17.76%) Stakeholder Management
2 163 (12.01%) Migration
3 136 (10.02%) Cybersecurity
3 136 (10.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 127 (9.36%) Problem-Solving
5 117 (8.62%) Continuous Improvement
6 107 (7.89%) Validation
7 105 (7.74%) ERP
7 105 (7.74%) Workshop Facilitation
8 99 (7.30%) User Acceptance Testing
9 87 (6.41%) Agile
10 86 (6.34%) Roadmaps
11 81 (5.97%) Analytics
12 75 (5.53%) Data Migration
12 75 (5.53%) Knowledge Transfer
13 69 (5.08%) Requirements Gathering
14 57 (4.20%) AI
14 57 (4.20%) Risk Management
14 57 (4.20%) Translating Business Requirements
14 57 (4.20%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 79 (5.82%) SQL
2 47 (3.46%) Python
3 37 (2.73%) ABAP
4 24 (1.77%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.40%) JavaScript
6 15 (1.11%) Java
7 14 (1.03%) PL/SQL
8 12 (0.88%) Bash
9 10 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.66%) Search Processing Language
11 4 (0.29%) C#
11 4 (0.29%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.22%) R
12 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.15%) Groovy
13 2 (0.15%) Korn
13 2 (0.15%) Magik
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 415 (30.58%) Security Cleared
2 275 (20.27%) SC Cleared
3 102 (7.52%) DV Cleared
4 63 (4.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 51 (3.76%) CISSP
6 42 (3.10%) CISM
7 34 (2.51%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.14%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 25 (1.84%) CCSP
10 23 (1.69%) Degree
11 12 (0.88%) ACCA
11 12 (0.88%) CIMA
11 12 (0.88%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (0.74%) CRISC
13 9 (0.66%) PMP
14 8 (0.59%) CCSK
15 7 (0.52%) CCA
15 7 (0.52%) DBS Check
16 6 (0.44%) CISA
16 6 (0.44%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (3.24%) NIST
2 40 (2.95%) GRC
3 35 (2.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 34 (2.51%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.47%) QA
5 20 (1.47%) SLA
6 19 (1.40%) NCSC
7 15 (1.11%) GDPR
8 13 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.88%) PMO
10 9 (0.66%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (0.52%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
13 4 (0.29%) COBIT
13 4 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 4 (0.29%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.29%) WCAG
14 3 (0.22%) GxP
15 2 (0.15%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 51 (3.76%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (0.96%) VMware NSX
4 12 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.74%) Hyper-V
6 9 (0.66%) vSphere
7 8 (0.59%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Firmware
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
9 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.074%) NFS
10 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 31 (2.28%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.33%) Ansible
3 10 (0.74%) vCenter Server
4 9 (0.66%) vRealize
5 7 (0.52%) Grafana
5 7 (0.52%) Nagios
5 7 (0.52%) ZABBIX
6 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.44%) Netcool
6 6 (0.44%) Tivoli
6 6 (0.44%) VxRail
7 5 (0.37%) OpenView
7 5 (0.37%) SCCM
7 5 (0.37%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 323 (23.80%) SAP
2 195 (14.37%) Microsoft
3 141 (10.39%) Oracle
4 59 (4.35%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.28%) Workday
6 29 (2.14%) VMware
7 22 (1.62%) Salesforce
8 21 (1.55%) Splunk
9 15 (1.11%) Ariba
10 14 (1.03%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.96%) CyberArk
12 12 (0.88%) BMC
12 12 (0.88%) Databricks
13 11 (0.81%) Google
14 9 (0.66%) IBM
15 8 (0.59%) Concur
15 8 (0.59%) Veeam
16 7 (0.52%) Cisco
16 7 (0.52%) Epicor
16 7 (0.52%) SolarWinds