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 £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 September 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 30 26
Rank change year-on-year -7 -4 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,368 909 1,098
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.83% 5.85% 6.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.29% 6.52% 6.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 589 653
10th Percentile £405 £413 £420
25th Percentile £460 £485 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% -2.65% +7.62%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £717 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +0.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 20 17
10th Percentile £44.25 £29.31 £54.16
25th Percentile £58.97 £49.50 £56.65
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 £69.69
90th Percentile £100.40 £87.78 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%

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 25,841 13,949 16,442
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.23% 89.84% 92.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,155 8,581 9,418
10th Percentile £303 £213 £220
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
90th Percentile £688 £663 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,384 1,301 1,372
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.50
25th Percentile £19.77 £16.50 £19.78
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +69.02% -42.72% +0.34%
75th Percentile £67.84 £51.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.74 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -7 378 £540 -1.82% 439
North of England -22 328 £575 - 418
Midlands -3 229 £500 -9.09% 233
North West -17 213 £581 -6.29% 240
South West +10 197 £550 -2.44% 201
West Midlands +2 165 £500 -9.09% 182
Scotland +29 133 £450 -10.00% 146
East of England -20 104 £550 - 150
Yorkshire -15 94 £575 +21.05% 96
East Midlands -6 59 £525 -4.55% 49
Wales -14 23 £550 +22.22% 31
North East -35 20 £750 +38.89% 82
Channel Islands -5 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 25 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.

1 416 (30.41%) Security Cleared
2 323 (23.61%) SAP
3 278 (20.32%) SC Cleared
4 236 (17.25%) Stakeholder Management
5 197 (14.40%) Microsoft
6 158 (11.55%) Migration
7 149 (10.89%) Oracle
8 141 (10.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 133 (9.72%) Cybersecurity
10 124 (9.06%) Azure
10 124 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
11 123 (8.99%) Continuous Improvement
12 114 (8.33%) ERP
13 112 (8.19%) SAP S/4HANA
14 104 (7.60%) Workshop Facilitation
15 103 (7.53%) Validation
16 100 (7.31%) DV Cleared
17 98 (7.16%) User Acceptance Testing
18 89 (6.51%) Agile
19 87 (6.36%) Roadmaps
20 84 (6.14%) AWS
21 82 (5.99%) SQL
22 80 (5.85%) Analytics
23 75 (5.48%) Knowledge Transfer
24 70 (5.12%) Data Migration
25 69 (5.04%) Requirements Gathering
26 65 (4.75%) BPSS Clearance
26 65 (4.75%) Dynamics 365
27 62 (4.53%) Risk Management
28 60 (4.39%) SuccessFactors

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 (1.75%) Confluence
2 18 (1.32%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
5 6 (0.44%) 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 (0.073%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.073%) JBoss
8 1 (0.073%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.073%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.073%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.66%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 112 (8.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.70%) SAP PSCD
3 30 (2.19%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.68%) SAP HCM
5 21 (1.54%) Oracle ERP
6 20 (1.46%) SAP HR
7 19 (1.39%) Oracle Payables
7 19 (1.39%) SAP FI
7 19 (1.39%) Workday HCM
8 16 (1.17%) Oracle EBS
8 16 (1.17%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.10%) SAP EWM
9 15 (1.10%) SAP QM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP PP
11 12 (0.88%) SAP Hybris
11 12 (0.88%) SAP MM
11 12 (0.88%) SAP SD
12 11 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
12 11 (0.80%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 124 (9.06%) Azure
2 84 (6.14%) AWS
3 65 (4.75%) Dynamics 365
4 60 (4.39%) SuccessFactors
5 58 (4.24%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.02%) GCP
7 52 (3.80%) OCI
8 37 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
9 31 (2.27%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.68%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.17%) SaaS
12 14 (1.02%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
14 12 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (0.73%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 10 (0.73%) PowerApps
16 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
16 9 (0.66%) GitHub
17 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.34%) Network Security
2 21 (1.54%) Firewall
3 15 (1.10%) SNMP
4 12 (0.88%) BGP
4 12 (0.88%) WAN
5 9 (0.66%) DNS
5 9 (0.66%) VPN
6 7 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.44%) VSAN
8 5 (0.37%) DHCP
8 5 (0.37%) FTP
8 5 (0.37%) LAN
8 5 (0.37%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.12%) Power BI
2 25 (1.83%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.24%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 15 (1.10%) SAP BW
5 13 (0.95%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.80%) Metadata
7 10 (0.73%) BusinessObjects
7 10 (0.73%) SQL Server
8 9 (0.66%) Tableau
9 7 (0.51%) Oracle ODI
10 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
11 4 (0.29%) Power Query
11 4 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.22%) GIS
12 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 45 (3.29%) JIRA
2 16 (1.17%) Git
3 7 (0.51%) Hudson
3 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.44%) 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%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.073%) Gerrit
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 338 (24.71%) Social Skills
2 275 (20.10%) Finance
3 126 (9.21%) Public Sector
4 109 (7.97%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (4.39%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.41%) Documentation Skills
6 33 (2.41%) Legal
7 30 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.19%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.12%) General Ledger
9 24 (1.75%) Banking
9 24 (1.75%) Billing
10 20 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
11 19 (1.39%) Retail
12 14 (1.02%) Financial Institution
12 14 (1.02%) Marketing
13 12 (0.88%) Aerospace
13 12 (0.88%) Military
13 12 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.00%) REST
2 34 (2.49%) Oracle Fusion
3 22 (1.61%) SOAP
4 21 (1.54%) Terraform
5 20 (1.46%) SailPoint
6 19 (1.39%) Middleware
6 19 (1.39%) Web Services
7 18 (1.32%) LDAP
8 17 (1.24%) SAP Fiori
9 16 (1.17%) XML
10 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
11 8 (0.58%) SAPUI5
12 7 (0.51%) XSLT
13 6 (0.44%) EDI
13 6 (0.44%) IDoc
13 6 (0.44%) JSON
13 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
13 6 (0.44%) OAuth
14 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
14 5 (0.37%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.36%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.97%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
3 25 (1.83%) Security Posture
4 23 (1.68%) CMDB
5 15 (1.10%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) Data Structures
6 14 (1.02%) PKI
7 13 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (0.80%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.80%) Learning Management System
8 11 (0.80%) Management Information System
9 8 (0.58%) AI Agents
10 7 (0.51%) FMCG
10 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (0.51%) Private Cloud
10 7 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (0.44%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.44%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 55 (4.02%) Windows
2 35 (2.56%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 13 (0.95%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.66%) AIX
5 9 (0.66%) Unix
6 5 (0.37%) VMS
7 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Android
9 1 (0.073%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 236 (17.25%) Stakeholder Management
2 158 (11.55%) Migration
3 141 (10.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 133 (9.72%) Cybersecurity
5 124 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
6 123 (8.99%) Continuous Improvement
7 114 (8.33%) ERP
8 104 (7.60%) Workshop Facilitation
9 103 (7.53%) Validation
10 98 (7.16%) User Acceptance Testing
11 89 (6.51%) Agile
12 87 (6.36%) Roadmaps
13 80 (5.85%) Analytics
14 75 (5.48%) Knowledge Transfer
15 70 (5.12%) Data Migration
16 69 (5.04%) Requirements Gathering
17 62 (4.53%) Risk Management
18 60 (4.39%) Translating Business Requirements
19 57 (4.17%) AI
19 57 (4.17%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 82 (5.99%) SQL
2 49 (3.58%) Python
3 36 (2.63%) ABAP
4 24 (1.75%) PowerShell
5 19 (1.39%) JavaScript
6 17 (1.24%) PL/SQL
7 15 (1.10%) Java
8 12 (0.88%) Bash
9 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (0.73%) Search Processing Language
10 4 (0.29%) R
10 4 (0.29%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.22%) C#
11 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.15%) Groovy
12 2 (0.15%) Korn
12 2 (0.15%) Magik
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 416 (30.41%) Security Cleared
2 278 (20.32%) SC Cleared
3 100 (7.31%) DV Cleared
4 65 (4.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 52 (3.80%) CISSP
6 43 (3.14%) CISM
7 35 (2.56%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.19%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 26 (1.90%) CCSP
10 23 (1.68%) Degree
11 13 (0.95%) ACCA
11 13 (0.95%) CIMA
12 12 (0.88%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.73%) PMP
14 9 (0.66%) CRISC
15 8 (0.58%) CCSK
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) CEH
16 7 (0.51%) OSCP
17 6 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (3.29%) NIST
2 43 (3.14%) GRC
3 34 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 32 (2.34%) Data Quality
5 20 (1.46%) QA
6 18 (1.32%) NCSC
7 16 (1.17%) GDPR
7 16 (1.17%) SLA
8 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.88%) PMO
10 9 (0.66%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.51%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.44%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.37%) COBIT
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
15 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.22%) GxP
15 3 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 51 (3.73%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.02%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.73%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.73%) vSphere
6 8 (0.58%) Docker
7 4 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.22%) Firmware
8 3 (0.22%) IAG
9 1 (0.073%) NFS
9 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.19%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.32%) Ansible
3 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
3 10 (0.73%) vRealize
4 8 (0.58%) Nagios
4 8 (0.58%) ZABBIX
5 7 (0.51%) Grafana
5 7 (0.51%) Netcool
5 7 (0.51%) Tivoli
6 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.44%) OpenView
6 6 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 6 (0.44%) VxRail
7 5 (0.37%) SCCM
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 (23.61%) SAP
2 197 (14.40%) Microsoft
3 149 (10.89%) Oracle
4 59 (4.31%) ServiceNow
5 31 (2.27%) VMware
6 28 (2.05%) Workday
7 22 (1.61%) Salesforce
7 22 (1.61%) Splunk
8 15 (1.10%) Ariba
9 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
10 13 (0.95%) BMC
10 13 (0.95%) CyberArk
10 13 (0.95%) Databricks
11 11 (0.80%) Google
12 10 (0.73%) IBM
13 8 (0.58%) SolarWinds
13 8 (0.58%) Veeam
14 7 (0.51%) Cisco
14 7 (0.51%) HP
14 7 (0.51%) OpenText