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 20 January 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 33 33
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 +31
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,033 769 996
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.58% 5.63% 5.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.15% 6.09% 5.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 646 473 668
10th Percentile £403 £413 £385
25th Percentile £470 £493 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £526
Median % change year-on-year - +4.51% -4.32%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £724 £719
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 11 25
10th Percentile £56.25 £55.00 £42.50
25th Percentile £60.00 £71.41 £52.90
Median hourly rate £67.75 £80.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.31% +28.00% -0.79%
75th Percentile £81.25 £86.00 £78.00
90th Percentile £87.95 £86.25 £84.20
UK median hourly rate £67.75 £80.00 £63.29
% change year-on-year -15.31% +26.40% -9.59%

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 16,799 12,635 18,505
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.74% 92.43% 93.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,313 7,458 11,813
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,704 689 1,542
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.36 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +41.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.28
% change year-on-year -15.38% -19.30% +15.07%

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 20 January 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 20 January 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 20 January 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 -2 275 £540 -6.09% 331
North of England -9 274 £595 +8.18% 185
Midlands -14 179 £525 - 98
North West -3 166 £621 +15.47% 99
West Midlands -8 138 £550 +3.53% 49
South West +11 113 £588 +11.90% 177
Yorkshire +5 99 £550 -12.00% 67
East of England +3 93 £550 -4.35% 90
Scotland +15 66 £514 -6.59% 17
East Midlands -24 40 £505 -3.35% 48
Wales +9 28 £405 -26.36% 28
Northern Ireland +4 12 £405 -22.86% 21
North East -19 9 £620 +3.33% 20
Channel Islands - 2 £600 - 3
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 January 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.

1 332 (32.14%) Security Cleared
2 268 (25.94%) SAP
2 268 (25.94%) SC Cleared
3 155 (15.00%) Migration
4 152 (14.71%) SAP S/4HANA
5 131 (12.68%) Oracle
6 125 (12.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 111 (10.75%) Problem-Solving
8 105 (10.16%) Stakeholder Management
9 100 (9.68%) Microsoft
9 100 (9.68%) Workshop Facilitation
10 89 (8.62%) ERP
11 75 (7.26%) Azure
12 72 (6.97%) Roadmaps
13 69 (6.68%) User Acceptance Testing
14 63 (6.10%) Knowledge Transfer
15 60 (5.81%) Analytics
16 59 (5.71%) Data Migration
17 55 (5.32%) Cybersecurity
17 55 (5.32%) Validation
18 53 (5.13%) CyberArk
19 52 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
20 49 (4.74%) Agile
20 49 (4.74%) Cisco
21 48 (4.65%) Change Management
22 47 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
22 47 (4.55%) Logistics
23 46 (4.45%) DevOps
24 45 (4.36%) Collaborative Working
24 45 (4.36%) DV Cleared

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 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 14 (1.36%) Confluence
2 14 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.48%) Jupyter
4 3 (0.29%) MTS
4 3 (0.29%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.19%) CMS
5 2 (0.19%) NetWeaver
5 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Service Bus
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.097%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.097%) Camunda
6 1 (0.097%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.097%) SAS
6 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.097%) WebSphere
Applications
1 17 (1.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (0.48%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.29%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.29%) PTC Creo
5 3 (0.29%) Revit
6 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
7 1 (0.097%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.097%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 152 (14.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 37 (3.58%) Oracle EBS
3 30 (2.90%) Oracle Payables
4 29 (2.81%) Oracle Receivables
4 29 (2.81%) SAP FI
5 25 (2.42%) Oracle EBS R12
6 24 (2.32%) SAP MM
7 23 (2.23%) Oracle Cash Management
7 23 (2.23%) SAP PSCD
8 22 (2.13%) Oracle General Ledger
8 22 (2.13%) SAP Payroll
9 21 (2.03%) SAP EWM
9 21 (2.03%) SAP HCM
10 18 (1.74%) Oracle Assets
10 18 (1.74%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 18 (1.74%) SAP Hybris
10 18 (1.74%) SAP WM
11 17 (1.65%) SAP BRIM
12 15 (1.45%) SAP CO
12 15 (1.45%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 75 (7.26%) Azure
2 41 (3.97%) OCI
3 36 (3.48%) AWS
4 34 (3.29%) Dynamics 365
5 30 (2.90%) GCP
6 27 (2.61%) Power Platform
7 26 (2.52%) Microsoft 365
8 18 (1.74%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 15 (1.45%) Entra ID
9 15 (1.45%) SuccessFactors
10 12 (1.16%) SaaS
11 10 (0.97%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (0.77%) OneDrive
13 8 (0.77%) PowerApps
14 6 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (0.58%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.48%) Azure AI
16 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
16 4 (0.39%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.65%) Firewall
2 7 (0.68%) SSH
3 6 (0.58%) Kerberos
3 6 (0.58%) Network Security
3 6 (0.58%) SD-WAN
3 6 (0.58%) WAN
4 4 (0.39%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (0.29%) BGP
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.29%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.29%) OSPF
5 3 (0.29%) VoIP
5 3 (0.29%) VPN
5 3 (0.29%) VSAN
5 3 (0.29%) WebEx
6 2 (0.19%) VLAN
6 2 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.19%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (2.23%) Oracle Reports
2 22 (2.13%) Power BI
3 19 (1.84%) SAP HANA
4 13 (1.26%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 13 (1.26%) SQL Server
5 11 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (0.87%) Metadata
7 8 (0.77%) SAP BW
8 5 (0.48%) GIS
8 5 (0.48%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
9 4 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.19%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.19%) QGIS
11 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 26 (2.52%) JIRA
2 9 (0.87%) GitLab
3 8 (0.77%) Hudson
4 7 (0.68%) Git
5 2 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.097%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.097%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.097%) JUnit
6 1 (0.097%) LSMW
6 1 (0.097%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.097%) Postman
6 1 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.097%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 262 (25.36%) Social Skills
2 220 (21.30%) Finance
3 133 (12.88%) Public Sector
4 89 (8.62%) Analytical Skills
5 51 (4.94%) Manufacturing
6 34 (3.29%) Presentation Skills
7 33 (3.19%) Telecoms
8 27 (2.61%) Billing
8 27 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (2.23%) General Ledger
10 19 (1.84%) Marketing
11 16 (1.55%) Local Government
12 12 (1.16%) Banking
12 12 (1.16%) Legal
12 12 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
13 9 (0.87%) Retail
14 7 (0.68%) Law
14 7 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
15 6 (0.58%) Aerospace
15 6 (0.58%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.78%) Oracle Fusion
2 35 (3.39%) SAP Fiori
3 34 (3.29%) REST
4 26 (2.52%) Web Services
5 21 (2.03%) SOAP
6 18 (1.74%) XML
7 14 (1.36%) BAPI
8 13 (1.26%) LDAP
9 10 (0.97%) OAuth
9 10 (0.97%) SAML
9 10 (0.97%) SAP Basis
10 9 (0.87%) Middleware
11 8 (0.77%) JSON
12 7 (0.68%) SAP TM
13 6 (0.58%) SAP Business Workflow
14 5 (0.48%) .NET
14 5 (0.48%) OpenID
15 4 (0.39%) OAuth2
16 3 (0.29%) Node.js
16 3 (0.29%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 37 (3.58%) Onboarding
2 25 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (1.36%) Product Ownership
4 12 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (1.16%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.06%) Replication
6 10 (0.97%) Data Centre
7 9 (0.87%) Management Information System
8 8 (0.77%) Data Structures
8 8 (0.77%) Public Cloud
9 7 (0.68%) SCADA
10 5 (0.48%) Beowulf
10 5 (0.48%) Operational Technology
10 5 (0.48%) SCORM
11 4 (0.39%) Contract for Difference
11 4 (0.39%) Educational Technology
11 4 (0.39%) FMCG
11 4 (0.39%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.39%) NHS
11 4 (0.39%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 31 (3.00%) Windows
2 21 (2.03%) Linux
3 7 (0.68%) AIX
3 7 (0.68%) Solaris
4 5 (0.48%) Unix
4 5 (0.48%) Windows 10
4 5 (0.48%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.29%) VMS
7 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.097%) CentOS
8 1 (0.097%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (15.00%) Migration
2 125 (12.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 111 (10.75%) Problem-Solving
4 105 (10.16%) Stakeholder Management
5 100 (9.68%) Workshop Facilitation
6 89 (8.62%) ERP
7 72 (6.97%) Roadmaps
8 69 (6.68%) User Acceptance Testing
9 63 (6.10%) Knowledge Transfer
10 60 (5.81%) Analytics
11 59 (5.71%) Data Migration
12 55 (5.32%) Cybersecurity
12 55 (5.32%) Validation
13 52 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
14 49 (4.74%) Agile
15 48 (4.65%) Change Management
16 47 (4.55%) Logistics
17 46 (4.45%) DevOps
18 45 (4.36%) Collaborative Working
19 42 (4.07%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 39 (3.78%) SQL
2 34 (3.29%) ABAP
3 25 (2.42%) Python
4 22 (2.13%) PowerShell
5 8 (0.77%) Bash
6 7 (0.68%) Groovy
6 7 (0.68%) JavaScript
7 6 (0.58%) PL/SQL
8 5 (0.48%) Java
9 3 (0.29%) C#
9 3 (0.29%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.29%) VBA
10 2 (0.19%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.19%) C
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.19%) X++
11 1 (0.097%) PHP
11 1 (0.097%) R
11 1 (0.097%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 332 (32.14%) Security Cleared
2 268 (25.94%) SC Cleared
3 47 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
4 45 (4.36%) DV Cleared
5 26 (2.52%) Degree
6 20 (1.94%) CISSP
7 15 (1.45%) CISM
8 12 (1.16%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (1.16%) SAP Certification
9 8 (0.77%) CCNP
9 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.39%) ACCA
10 4 (0.39%) CCIE
10 4 (0.39%) CIMA
10 4 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (0.29%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.29%) CESG Certified Professional
11 3 (0.29%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 3 (0.29%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (4.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (3.19%) NIST
3 26 (2.52%) QA
4 24 (2.32%) GDPR
5 17 (1.65%) Data Quality
6 16 (1.55%) GRC
7 12 (1.16%) Actionable Recommendations
8 8 (0.77%) NCSC
8 8 (0.77%) PMO
9 7 (0.68%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.58%) SOC 2
11 5 (0.48%) COBIT
11 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.48%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.39%) RMADS
13 3 (0.29%) ISO 19650
13 3 (0.29%) NIST 800
13 3 (0.29%) SLA
14 2 (0.19%) IFRS
System Software
1 31 (3.00%) Active Directory
2 12 (1.16%) Docker
3 11 (1.06%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.48%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.29%) vSphere
7 1 (0.097%) Ceph
7 1 (0.097%) Firmware
7 1 (0.097%) KVM
7 1 (0.097%) NDS
7 1 (0.097%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.097%) QEMU
7 1 (0.097%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.097%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (2.03%) Kubernetes
2 15 (1.45%) Terraform
3 10 (0.97%) PingFederate
3 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (0.77%) Grafana
5 7 (0.68%) Prometheus
5 7 (0.68%) SCCM
6 6 (0.58%) Ansible
7 5 (0.48%) Podman
8 4 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
10 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
10 2 (0.19%) EnCase
10 2 (0.19%) FTK
10 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
10 2 (0.19%) vRealize
11 1 (0.097%) Cisco UCCE
11 1 (0.097%) Control-M
11 1 (0.097%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 268 (25.94%) SAP
2 131 (12.68%) Oracle
3 100 (9.68%) Microsoft
4 53 (5.13%) CyberArk
5 49 (4.74%) Cisco
6 34 (3.29%) Aruba
7 31 (3.00%) ServiceNow
8 26 (2.52%) Workday
9 19 (1.84%) Google
10 17 (1.65%) VMware
11 13 (1.26%) Ariba
12 12 (1.16%) Adobe
12 12 (1.16%) OpenText
12 12 (1.16%) Salesforce
13 10 (0.97%) BMC
14 9 (0.87%) Remedy
15 8 (0.77%) Atlassian
15 8 (0.77%) Databricks
15 8 (0.77%) IFS
15 8 (0.77%) Siemens