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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 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 1,313 753 1,184
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.87% 5.07% 5.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.29% 5.57% 6.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 721 469 764
10th Percentile £405 £400 £419
25th Percentile £456 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £571
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.72% +8.81%
75th Percentile £615 £613 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £730
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - -0.05% +0.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 20 22
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.31 £17.85
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £50.73
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £59.95
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +29.27% -7.54%
75th Percentile £60.00 £82.44 £61.60
90th Percentile £83.85 £86.00 £68.88
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £75.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -23.33% +21.75% -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 24,810 13,513 19,149
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.08% 90.92% 92.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,161 8,377 11,512
10th Percentile £303 £216 £213
25th Percentile £406 £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 £597
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 2,863 1,115 2,331
10th Percentile £15.15 £13.50 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.77 £16.89 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +6.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £26.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +64.87% -33.75% -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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -5 367 £525 -4.55% 215
North of England -16 279 £538 -0.23% 173
Midlands -8 256 £501 -9.00% 103
South West +28 214 £556 +1.09% 102
West Midlands +8 183 £501 -9.00% 74
North West -12 158 £525 -4.55% 107
Yorkshire -21 100 £531 +8.97% 48
Scotland +35 93 £425 -8.11% 23
East of England -17 87 £550 - 60
East Midlands -8 64 £500 -9.09% 29
Wales -3 31 £550 +37.50% 14
North East -35 21 £650 +21.72% 19
Northern Ireland -5 2 £525 +0.96% 55
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 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.

1 285 (21.71%) SAP
2 284 (21.63%) Security Cleared
3 198 (15.08%) SC Cleared
4 153 (11.65%) Microsoft
5 151 (11.50%) Azure
5 151 (11.50%) ERP
6 144 (10.97%) Migration
7 135 (10.28%) Oracle
8 125 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 125 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
9 119 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
9 119 (9.06%) SQL
10 109 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
11 98 (7.46%) SAP S/4HANA
12 96 (7.31%) Cybersecurity
13 92 (7.01%) Validation
14 85 (6.47%) Workshop Facilitation
15 80 (6.09%) Data Migration
16 79 (6.02%) User Acceptance Testing
17 74 (5.64%) Agile
18 70 (5.33%) Roadmaps
19 69 (5.26%) AWS
20 68 (5.18%) DV Cleared
21 60 (4.57%) PLM
22 59 (4.49%) Analytics
23 58 (4.42%) Python
24 57 (4.34%) Data Protection
24 57 (4.34%) Windows
25 56 (4.27%) CISSP
26 55 (4.19%) 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 27 (2.06%) Confluence
2 15 (1.14%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.69%) 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
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 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.69%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.38%) PTC Creo
6 3 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.15%) Lectora
7 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.076%) CATIA
8 1 (0.076%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 98 (7.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (2.97%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.75%) SAP MM
4 21 (1.60%) Teamcenter
5 19 (1.45%) Oracle ERP
5 19 (1.45%) SAP FI
6 18 (1.37%) Oracle Payables
6 18 (1.37%) SAP EWM
6 18 (1.37%) SAP Payroll
7 15 (1.14%) Oracle Receivables
7 15 (1.14%) SAP HCM
7 15 (1.14%) SAP SD
8 13 (0.99%) SAP QM
9 12 (0.91%) SAP BRIM
9 12 (0.91%) SAP Hybris
10 11 (0.84%) NetSuite
11 10 (0.76%) SAP CO
12 9 (0.69%) SAP FI/CO
12 9 (0.69%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 151 (11.50%) Azure
2 69 (5.26%) AWS
3 55 (4.19%) Power Platform
4 45 (3.43%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (3.27%) OCI
6 39 (2.97%) GCP
7 31 (2.36%) Microsoft 365
8 27 (2.06%) Entra ID
8 27 (2.06%) SuccessFactors
9 21 (1.60%) Power Automate
10 16 (1.22%) Microsoft Copilot
10 16 (1.22%) SaaS
11 14 (1.07%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 13 (0.99%) PowerApps
13 12 (0.91%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (0.91%) GitHub
13 12 (0.91%) Oracle Service Cloud
14 9 (0.69%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.61%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.53%) Copilot Studio
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%) FTP
6 8 (0.61%) VPN
7 7 (0.53%) LAN
8 6 (0.46%) TCP/IP
9 5 (0.38%) HTTP
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%) VSAN
10 4 (0.30%) VXLAN
10 4 (0.30%) Wireless
11 3 (0.23%) MPLS
11 3 (0.23%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (2.67%) Power BI
2 29 (2.21%) Oracle Reports
3 21 (1.60%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.29%) Oracle ODI
5 11 (0.84%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 11 (0.84%) Tableau
6 9 (0.69%) Metadata
6 9 (0.69%) SAP Data Services
6 9 (0.69%) SQL Server
7 8 (0.61%) SAP BW
8 7 (0.53%) BusinessObjects
9 6 (0.46%) Oracle Database
10 5 (0.38%) NonStop SQL
11 4 (0.30%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.30%) Power Query
11 4 (0.30%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.23%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.23%) Hadoop
13 2 (0.15%) Crystal Reports
Development Applications
1 44 (3.35%) JIRA
2 13 (0.99%) Hudson
3 9 (0.69%) 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
1 283 (21.55%) Social Skills
2 250 (19.04%) Finance
3 111 (8.45%) Analytical Skills
4 106 (8.07%) Public Sector
5 45 (3.43%) Manufacturing
6 39 (2.97%) Legal
7 31 (2.36%) Banking
8 29 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 26 (1.98%) Billing
9 26 (1.98%) General Ledger
10 22 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
12 19 (1.45%) Aerospace
13 16 (1.22%) Retail
14 13 (0.99%) Marketing
14 13 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
16 10 (0.76%) Local Government
17 9 (0.69%) Financial Institution
18 8 (0.61%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.20%) REST
1 42 (3.20%) XML
2 21 (1.60%) Oracle Fusion
3 18 (1.37%) SOAP
4 12 (0.91%) Middleware
4 12 (0.91%) SAP Fiori
4 12 (0.91%) Web Services
5 7 (0.53%) IDoc
6 6 (0.46%) BAPI
6 6 (0.46%) JDBC
6 6 (0.46%) JSON
6 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Graph
6 6 (0.46%) RESTful
6 6 (0.46%) SailPoint
6 6 (0.46%) SAP PI
7 5 (0.38%) SAP Basis
8 4 (0.30%) .NET
8 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
8 4 (0.30%) eBPF
8 4 (0.30%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 37 (2.82%) Data Protection Act
2 28 (2.13%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.83%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.22%) Operational Technology
5 15 (1.14%) AI Agents
6 14 (1.07%) Public Cloud
7 12 (0.91%) Replication
8 11 (0.84%) CMDB
8 11 (0.84%) Management Information System
8 11 (0.84%) Product Ownership
9 10 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
9 10 (0.76%) Cloud Native
9 10 (0.76%) Data Centre
9 10 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
10 9 (0.69%) FMCG
10 9 (0.69%) Private Cloud
11 8 (0.61%) Data Structures
11 8 (0.61%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (0.61%) NHS
12 7 (0.53%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 57 (4.34%) Windows
2 42 (3.20%) Linux
3 17 (1.29%) Solaris
4 13 (0.99%) AIX
5 10 (0.76%) Unix
6 9 (0.69%) 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
1 151 (11.50%) ERP
2 144 (10.97%) Migration
3 125 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 125 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
4 119 (9.06%) Problem-Solving
5 109 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
6 96 (7.31%) Cybersecurity
7 92 (7.01%) Validation
8 85 (6.47%) Workshop Facilitation
9 80 (6.09%) Data Migration
10 79 (6.02%) User Acceptance Testing
11 74 (5.64%) Agile
12 70 (5.33%) Roadmaps
13 60 (4.57%) PLM
14 59 (4.49%) Analytics
15 57 (4.34%) Data Protection
16 55 (4.19%) AI
17 53 (4.04%) Business Intelligence
18 52 (3.96%) Information Security
18 52 (3.96%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 119 (9.06%) SQL
2 58 (4.42%) Python
3 29 (2.21%) ABAP
4 28 (2.13%) T-SQL
5 27 (2.06%) PL/SQL
5 27 (2.06%) PowerShell
6 16 (1.22%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.07%) Java
8 13 (0.99%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.91%) Bash
10 10 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.46%) R
12 5 (0.38%) C#
13 3 (0.23%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.23%) TypeScript
14 2 (0.15%) C++
14 2 (0.15%) VBScript
15 1 (0.076%) ActionScript
15 1 (0.076%) REXX
15 1 (0.076%) VB
Qualifications
1 284 (21.63%) Security Cleared
2 198 (15.08%) SC Cleared
3 68 (5.18%) DV Cleared
4 56 (4.27%) CISSP
5 40 (3.05%) CISM
6 38 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
7 30 (2.28%) Degree
8 23 (1.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (1.68%) CCSP
10 11 (0.84%) PMP
11 10 (0.76%) CEH
12 9 (0.69%) OSCP
13 8 (0.61%) ACCA
13 8 (0.61%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.61%) CIMA
13 8 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (0.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (0.46%) CCA
14 6 (0.46%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (3.96%) NIST
2 43 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (2.51%) GRC
4 28 (2.13%) Data Quality
5 21 (1.60%) QA
6 17 (1.29%) GDPR
7 13 (0.99%) NCSC
7 13 (0.99%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.91%) Actionable Recommendations
9 10 (0.76%) SLA
10 8 (0.61%) Accessibility
10 8 (0.61%) JSP 440
11 7 (0.53%) COBIT
11 7 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.46%) PMO
12 6 (0.46%) RMADS
13 4 (0.30%) WCAG
14 3 (0.23%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.23%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 31 (2.36%) Active Directory
2 20 (1.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.07%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.99%) vSphere
5 12 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.38%) Docker
7 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.15%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.076%) IAG
9 1 (0.076%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.076%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.83%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.60%) Terraform
3 19 (1.45%) 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 9 (0.69%) vRealize
8 8 (0.61%) 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
12 3 (0.23%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.23%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.23%) VxRail
Vendors
1 285 (21.71%) SAP
2 153 (11.65%) Microsoft
3 135 (10.28%) Oracle
4 54 (4.11%) Siemens
5 42 (3.20%) ServiceNow
6 30 (2.28%) VMware
7 24 (1.83%) Splunk
8 17 (1.29%) Ariba
9 16 (1.22%) BMC
10 15 (1.14%) IBM
11 14 (1.07%) Databricks
11 14 (1.07%) JD Edwards
11 14 (1.07%) Workday
12 13 (0.99%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.91%) HP
14 11 (0.84%) Google
14 11 (0.84%) Sage
14 11 (0.84%) Salesforce
15 10 (0.76%) IFS
16 9 (0.69%) Informatica