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 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 37 28
Rank change year-on-year 0 -9 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,315 743 1,166
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.89% 5.02% 5.72%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.31% 5.54% 6.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 724 466 752
10th Percentile £405 £400 £421
25th Percentile £456 £464 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £616 £622 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £733
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £555
% change year-on-year - -0.95% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 18 20
10th Percentile £52.50 £28.92 £16.44
25th Percentile £56.25 £45.99 £52.18
Median hourly rate £57.50 £73.75 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +19.72% -5.23%
75th Percentile £60.00 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £85.55 £86.00 £71.47
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.32%

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 24,783 13,419 18,815
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.12% 90.64% 92.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,131 8,289 11,399
10th Percentile £305 £220 £213
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
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% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,851 1,133 2,218
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £12.88
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.63% +5.15%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.44 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £44.50 £25.31 £40.00
% change year-on-year +75.82% -36.73% -5.88%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -4 377 £540 -1.82% 200
North of England -14 276 £525 -2.78% 137
Midlands -8 253 £501 -9.00% 80
South West +22 212 £556 -3.30% 94
West Midlands +11 181 £501 -9.00% 61
North West -12 157 £525 -7.49% 87
Yorkshire -14 98 £544 +14.47% 39
Scotland +35 95 £425 -8.11% 18
East of England -15 86 £550 - 59
East Midlands -11 63 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -4 29 £550 +23.94% 14
North East -36 21 £650 +21.72% 12
Northern Ireland -6 2 £525 +0.96% 20
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 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.

1 297 (22.59%) Security Cleared
2 283 (21.52%) SAP
3 199 (15.13%) SC Cleared
4 156 (11.86%) Microsoft
5 150 (11.41%) Azure
6 149 (11.33%) ERP
7 140 (10.65%) Migration
8 135 (10.27%) Oracle
9 127 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 126 (9.58%) Stakeholder Management
11 120 (9.13%) SQL
12 118 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
13 109 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
14 97 (7.38%) Cybersecurity
15 94 (7.15%) Validation
16 92 (7.00%) SAP S/4HANA
17 88 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
18 83 (6.31%) User Acceptance Testing
19 79 (6.01%) DV Cleared
20 75 (5.70%) Data Migration
21 74 (5.63%) Agile
21 74 (5.63%) Roadmaps
22 71 (5.40%) AWS
23 60 (4.56%) Analytics
24 59 (4.49%) PLM
25 57 (4.33%) Python
26 56 (4.26%) CISSP
26 56 (4.26%) Data Protection
26 56 (4.26%) Power Platform
26 56 (4.26%) Windows

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 (2.05%) Confluence
2 16 (1.22%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.68%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
4 8 (0.61%) 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 (0.076%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.076%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.076%) NetWeaver
6 1 (0.076%) SAS
6 1 (0.076%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (2.05%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.68%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.23%) PTC Creo
5 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.076%) CATIA
7 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 92 (7.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (2.81%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.75%) SAP MM
4 22 (1.67%) Teamcenter
5 21 (1.60%) SAP EWM
6 19 (1.44%) Oracle ERP
7 18 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
7 18 (1.37%) SAP FI
7 18 (1.37%) SAP Payroll
8 15 (1.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.14%) SAP HCM
8 15 (1.14%) SAP SD
9 13 (0.99%) SAP QM
10 11 (0.84%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.84%) SAP PP
11 10 (0.76%) SAP BRIM
11 10 (0.76%) SAP Hybris
12 9 (0.68%) SAP CO
12 9 (0.68%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 150 (11.41%) Azure
2 71 (5.40%) AWS
3 56 (4.26%) Power Platform
4 51 (3.88%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.27%) OCI
6 41 (3.12%) GCP
7 31 (2.36%) Microsoft 365
8 28 (2.13%) Entra ID
9 27 (2.05%) SuccessFactors
10 22 (1.67%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.29%) SaaS
12 13 (0.99%) Microsoft Copilot
12 13 (0.99%) PowerApps
13 12 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (0.91%) GitHub
13 12 (0.91%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 12 (0.91%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.61%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.53%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.21%) Network Security
2 24 (1.83%) Firewall
3 20 (1.52%) SNMP
4 12 (0.91%) BGP
5 10 (0.76%) WAN
6 8 (0.61%) VPN
7 7 (0.53%) FTP
7 7 (0.53%) LAN
8 6 (0.46%) TCP/IP
9 5 (0.38%) HTTP
9 5 (0.38%) VSAN
9 5 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.30%) DNS
10 4 (0.30%) Ethernet VPN
10 4 (0.30%) SAN
10 4 (0.30%) TACACS
10 4 (0.30%) VXLAN
10 4 (0.30%) Wireless
11 3 (0.23%) MPLS
11 3 (0.23%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.74%) Power BI
2 29 (2.21%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.67%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.29%) Oracle ODI
5 11 (0.84%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.84%) SQL Server
5 11 (0.84%) Tableau
6 10 (0.76%) Metadata
7 9 (0.68%) SAP Data Services
8 8 (0.61%) SAP BW
9 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
10 6 (0.46%) Oracle Database
11 5 (0.38%) NonStop SQL
12 4 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.30%) Power Query
12 4 (0.30%) Relational Database
13 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
13 3 (0.23%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 44 (3.35%) JIRA
2 13 (0.99%) Hudson
3 9 (0.68%) Git
4 8 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.46%) 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%) TestRail
8 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
9 1 (0.076%) Appium
9 1 (0.076%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.076%) MSTest
9 1 (0.076%) NUnit
9 1 (0.076%) ScriptRunner
9 1 (0.076%) Yeoman
General
1 278 (21.14%) Social Skills
2 241 (18.33%) Finance
3 112 (8.52%) Analytical Skills
4 101 (7.68%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.65%) Manufacturing
6 37 (2.81%) Legal
7 30 (2.28%) Banking
8 26 (1.98%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.90%) General Ledger
10 24 (1.83%) Billing
11 23 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
12 20 (1.52%) Aerospace
13 17 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.14%) Retail
15 13 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
15 13 (0.99%) Marketing
15 13 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.68%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.61%) Advertising
17 8 (0.61%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.27%) XML
2 41 (3.12%) REST
3 21 (1.60%) Oracle Fusion
4 18 (1.37%) SOAP
5 15 (1.14%) Middleware
6 12 (0.91%) Web Services
7 11 (0.84%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.68%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.53%) IDoc
10 6 (0.46%) BAPI
10 6 (0.46%) JDBC
10 6 (0.46%) JSON
10 6 (0.46%) LDAP
10 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.46%) RESTful
10 6 (0.46%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.38%) .NET
11 5 (0.38%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
2 34 (2.59%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.83%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.22%) Operational Technology
5 13 (0.99%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.91%) Replication
7 11 (0.84%) CMDB
7 11 (0.84%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.84%) Public Cloud
8 10 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.76%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.76%) Data Centre
8 10 (0.76%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.68%) FMCG
9 9 (0.68%) Private Cloud
10 8 (0.61%) Data Structures
10 8 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (0.61%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (0.61%) NHS
11 7 (0.53%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 56 (4.26%) Windows
2 42 (3.19%) Linux
3 17 (1.29%) Solaris
4 13 (0.99%) AIX
5 10 (0.76%) Unix
6 9 (0.68%) VMS
7 3 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.23%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.076%) Android
8 1 (0.076%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.076%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.076%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.076%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (11.33%) ERP
2 140 (10.65%) Migration
3 127 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 126 (9.58%) Stakeholder Management
5 118 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
6 109 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
7 97 (7.38%) Cybersecurity
8 94 (7.15%) Validation
9 88 (6.69%) Workshop Facilitation
10 83 (6.31%) User Acceptance Testing
11 75 (5.70%) Data Migration
12 74 (5.63%) Agile
12 74 (5.63%) Roadmaps
13 60 (4.56%) Analytics
14 59 (4.49%) PLM
15 56 (4.26%) Data Protection
16 54 (4.11%) AI
17 53 (4.03%) Business Intelligence
18 52 (3.95%) Workflow
19 50 (3.80%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 120 (9.13%) SQL
2 57 (4.33%) Python
3 29 (2.21%) ABAP
4 28 (2.13%) PowerShell
4 28 (2.13%) T-SQL
5 27 (2.05%) PL/SQL
6 17 (1.29%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.06%) Java
8 13 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.91%) Bash
10 10 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.46%) C#
11 6 (0.46%) R
12 3 (0.23%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.15%) C++
13 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.15%) VBScript
14 1 (0.076%) COBOL
14 1 (0.076%) VB
Qualifications
1 297 (22.59%) Security Cleared
2 199 (15.13%) SC Cleared
3 79 (6.01%) DV Cleared
4 56 (4.26%) CISSP
5 41 (3.12%) CISM
6 37 (2.81%) BPSS Clearance
7 31 (2.36%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.28%) Degree
9 24 (1.83%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.67%) CCSP
11 11 (0.84%) PMP
12 10 (0.76%) CEH
13 9 (0.68%) OSCP
14 8 (0.61%) ACCA
14 8 (0.61%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.61%) CIMA
14 8 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 6 (0.46%) CCA
15 6 (0.46%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.80%) NIST
2 41 (3.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (2.51%) GRC
4 29 (2.21%) Data Quality
5 21 (1.60%) QA
6 19 (1.44%) GDPR
7 13 (0.99%) NCSC
7 13 (0.99%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.91%) Actionable Recommendations
9 11 (0.84%) SLA
10 8 (0.61%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.53%) COBIT
11 7 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.46%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.46%) PMO
12 6 (0.46%) RMADS
13 4 (0.30%) Def Stans
13 4 (0.30%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.30%) WCAG
14 2 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 33 (2.51%) Active Directory
2 21 (1.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (1.14%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.99%) VMware ESXi
4 13 (0.99%) vSphere
5 4 (0.30%) Docker
5 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.15%) NFS
6 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.076%) IAG
7 1 (0.076%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.076%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 23 (1.75%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.60%) Terraform
3 19 (1.44%) Ansible
4 13 (0.99%) Nagios
4 13 (0.99%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.91%) Netcool
5 12 (0.91%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.84%) OpenView
6 11 (0.84%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 10 (0.76%) vRealize
8 9 (0.68%) vCenter Server
9 6 (0.46%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.46%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.38%) CEMLI
10 5 (0.38%) Grafana
11 4 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.30%) VxRail
12 3 (0.23%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 283 (21.52%) SAP
2 156 (11.86%) Microsoft
3 135 (10.27%) Oracle
4 52 (3.95%) Siemens
5 42 (3.19%) ServiceNow
6 31 (2.36%) VMware
7 27 (2.05%) Splunk
8 16 (1.22%) BMC
9 15 (1.14%) Ariba
9 15 (1.14%) IBM
10 14 (1.06%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.99%) Databricks
11 13 (0.99%) SolarWinds
11 13 (0.99%) Workday
12 12 (0.91%) HP
13 11 (0.84%) Salesforce
14 10 (0.76%) Google
14 10 (0.76%) IFS
14 10 (0.76%) Sage
15 9 (0.68%) Informatica