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 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 36 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 -9 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,346 759 1,130
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.01% 5.03% 5.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.43% 5.56% 6.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 752 474 731
10th Percentile £403 £400 £425
25th Percentile £456 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 20 19
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.31 £45.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £55.47
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £77.60 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £81.73 £68.34
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.23%

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 24,766 13,645 17,460
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.25% 90.45% 92.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,053 8,419 10,677
10th Percentile £306 £217 £215
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,181 1,886
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.50 £13.62
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 0 389 £525 -4.55% 209
North of England -15 288 £550 +2.04% 166
Midlands +2 257 £500 -9.09% 73
South West +24 212 £556 -3.30% 108
West Midlands +12 185 £500 -11.11% 52
North West -13 169 £536 -2.50% 112
Scotland +32 101 £425 -12.82% 25
Yorkshire -12 100 £544 +14.47% 41
East of England -15 82 £550 - 35
East Midlands -3 63 £500 -9.09% 21
Wales -6 29 £550 +10.00% 12
North East -45 20 £750 +39.66% 13
Northern Ireland -8 1 £450 -13.46% 16
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 327 (24.29%) Security Cleared
2 295 (21.92%) SAP
3 218 (16.20%) SC Cleared
4 155 (11.52%) Microsoft
5 149 (11.07%) Stakeholder Management
6 144 (10.70%) Migration
7 141 (10.48%) ERP
8 139 (10.33%) Oracle
9 136 (10.10%) Azure
10 127 (9.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 122 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
12 121 (8.99%) SQL
13 113 (8.40%) Continuous Improvement
14 108 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
15 95 (7.06%) Validation
16 93 (6.91%) SAP S/4HANA
17 88 (6.54%) DV Cleared
18 87 (6.46%) Workshop Facilitation
19 85 (6.32%) User Acceptance Testing
20 82 (6.09%) Agile
20 82 (6.09%) Roadmaps
21 76 (5.65%) Data Migration
22 73 (5.42%) AWS
23 61 (4.53%) Analytics
24 59 (4.38%) Risk Management
25 58 (4.31%) CISSP
25 58 (4.31%) Python
26 56 (4.16%) Power Platform
27 54 (4.01%) Business Intelligence
28 53 (3.94%) 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 28 (2.08%) Confluence
2 18 (1.34%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.67%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) Apache
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 1 (0.074%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.074%) SAS
7 1 (0.074%) Tomcat
Applications
1 45 (3.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.67%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.074%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 93 (6.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.45%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.71%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.71%) Oracle ERP
3 23 (1.71%) SAP MM
4 21 (1.56%) SAP EWM
5 18 (1.34%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (1.34%) SAP Payroll
6 17 (1.26%) Teamcenter
7 16 (1.19%) SAP FI
8 15 (1.11%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.11%) SAP HCM
8 15 (1.11%) SAP SD
9 14 (1.04%) SAP QM
10 11 (0.82%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.82%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.82%) SAP PP
10 11 (0.82%) Workday HCM
11 10 (0.74%) SAP FI/CO
12 9 (0.67%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 136 (10.10%) Azure
2 73 (5.42%) AWS
3 56 (4.16%) Power Platform
4 53 (3.94%) Dynamics 365
5 46 (3.42%) OCI
6 43 (3.19%) GCP
7 42 (3.12%) SuccessFactors
8 31 (2.30%) Microsoft 365
9 24 (1.78%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.71%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.26%) SaaS
12 12 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.89%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 12 (0.89%) PowerApps
13 11 (0.82%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.82%) GitHub
13 11 (0.82%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.15%) Network Security
2 24 (1.78%) Firewall
3 20 (1.49%) SNMP
4 12 (0.89%) BGP
5 10 (0.74%) WAN
6 8 (0.59%) VPN
7 7 (0.52%) LAN
8 6 (0.45%) FTP
8 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.45%) VSAN
9 5 (0.37%) HTTP
9 5 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.30%) DNS
10 4 (0.30%) SAN
10 4 (0.30%) Wireless
11 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.22%) MPLS
11 3 (0.22%) SMS
11 3 (0.22%) TACACS
11 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.53%) Power BI
2 28 (2.08%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.63%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.26%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.11%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.04%) SQL Server
7 13 (0.97%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 11 (0.82%) Tableau
9 10 (0.74%) Metadata
10 9 (0.67%) SAP Data Services
11 7 (0.52%) BusinessObjects
12 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
13 5 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
13 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
14 4 (0.30%) Power Query
15 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
15 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
15 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
15 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 47 (3.49%) JIRA
2 13 (0.97%) Hudson
3 10 (0.74%) Git
4 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.52%) Oracle Forms
5 3 (0.22%) Postman
5 3 (0.22%) Toad
5 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.15%) TestRail
6 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.074%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.074%) GitLab
7 1 (0.074%) JMeter
7 1 (0.074%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.074%) tSQLt
7 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 296 (21.99%) Social Skills
2 245 (18.20%) Finance
3 115 (8.54%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (7.88%) Public Sector
5 47 (3.49%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.67%) Legal
7 32 (2.38%) Banking
8 28 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.93%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.86%) General Ledger
11 21 (1.56%) Aerospace
11 21 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
12 20 (1.49%) Billing
13 16 (1.19%) Retail
14 15 (1.11%) Marketing
15 14 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
15 14 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.67%) Advertising
16 9 (0.67%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.12%) REST
1 42 (3.12%) XML
2 24 (1.78%) Oracle Fusion
3 20 (1.49%) SOAP
4 15 (1.11%) Middleware
5 12 (0.89%) Web Services
6 11 (0.82%) SAP Fiori
7 9 (0.67%) SAP PI
8 7 (0.52%) IDoc
8 7 (0.52%) JSON
8 7 (0.52%) LDAP
9 6 (0.45%) JDBC
9 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
10 5 (0.37%) RESTful
10 5 (0.37%) SailPoint
10 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
11 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
11 4 (0.30%) eBPF
11 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 37 (2.75%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.45%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.71%) Security Posture
4 15 (1.11%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.04%) CMDB
6 13 (0.97%) Replication
7 12 (0.89%) Product Ownership
8 11 (0.82%) AI Agents
8 11 (0.82%) Data Centre
9 10 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
9 10 (0.74%) Cloud Native
9 10 (0.74%) Data Structures
10 9 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (0.67%) FMCG
10 9 (0.67%) Management Information System
10 9 (0.67%) Private Cloud
10 9 (0.67%) Public Cloud
11 8 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (0.59%) Security Operations Centre
12 7 (0.52%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 50 (3.71%) Windows
2 42 (3.12%) Linux
3 17 (1.26%) Solaris
4 14 (1.04%) AIX
5 10 (0.74%) Unix
6 9 (0.67%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.074%) Android
9 1 (0.074%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.074%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.074%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (11.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 144 (10.70%) Migration
3 141 (10.48%) ERP
4 127 (9.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 122 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
6 113 (8.40%) Continuous Improvement
7 108 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
8 95 (7.06%) Validation
9 87 (6.46%) Workshop Facilitation
10 85 (6.32%) User Acceptance Testing
11 82 (6.09%) Agile
11 82 (6.09%) Roadmaps
12 76 (5.65%) Data Migration
13 61 (4.53%) Analytics
14 59 (4.38%) Risk Management
15 54 (4.01%) Business Intelligence
16 53 (3.94%) AI
17 52 (3.86%) Data Protection
18 51 (3.79%) Translating Business Requirements
19 50 (3.71%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 121 (8.99%) SQL
2 58 (4.31%) Python
3 30 (2.23%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.15%) ABAP
4 29 (2.15%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.93%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.41%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.97%) Java
7 13 (0.97%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.89%) Bash
9 10 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.45%) C#
10 6 (0.45%) R
11 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.15%) VBScript
12 1 (0.074%) SOQL
12 1 (0.074%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 327 (24.29%) Security Cleared
2 218 (16.20%) SC Cleared
3 88 (6.54%) DV Cleared
4 58 (4.31%) CISSP
5 45 (3.34%) CISM
6 43 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.23%) Degree
9 26 (1.93%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.63%) CCSP
11 11 (0.82%) ACCA
11 11 (0.82%) CIMA
11 11 (0.82%) PMP
12 10 (0.74%) CEH
13 9 (0.67%) OSCP
14 8 (0.59%) Azure Certification
15 7 (0.52%) CompTIA Security+
15 7 (0.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 6 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.71%) NIST
2 44 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (2.67%) GRC
4 29 (2.15%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.71%) QA
6 18 (1.34%) GDPR
7 14 (1.04%) NCSC
8 13 (0.97%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.82%) SLA
11 8 (0.59%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.45%) COBIT
13 6 (0.45%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.45%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.45%) PMO
13 6 (0.45%) RMADS
14 4 (0.30%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 31 (2.30%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.19%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.97%) vSphere
6 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.22%) Docker
7 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.074%) Firmware
9 1 (0.074%) IAG
9 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.63%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.56%) Terraform
3 20 (1.49%) Ansible
4 13 (0.97%) Nagios
4 13 (0.97%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.89%) Netcool
5 12 (0.89%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.82%) OpenView
6 11 (0.82%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.82%) vRealize
7 10 (0.74%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.52%) Grafana
9 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.45%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.37%) VxRail
11 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 295 (21.92%) SAP
2 155 (11.52%) Microsoft
3 139 (10.33%) Oracle
4 46 (3.42%) ServiceNow
5 35 (2.60%) Siemens
6 31 (2.30%) VMware
7 29 (2.15%) Splunk
8 17 (1.26%) BMC
9 16 (1.19%) IBM
10 15 (1.11%) Ariba
10 15 (1.11%) Salesforce
11 14 (1.04%) JD Edwards
11 14 (1.04%) Workday
12 13 (0.97%) Databricks
12 13 (0.97%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.89%) HP
14 10 (0.74%) Google
14 10 (0.74%) IFS
15 9 (0.67%) Informatica
15 9 (0.67%) Veeam