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 £530, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 September 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 34 26
Rank change year-on-year +1 -8 +12
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,390 811 1,102
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.01% 5.33% 6.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.47% 5.93% 6.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 811 516 681
10th Percentile £405 £413 £415
25th Percentile £460 £490 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% -2.65% +7.62%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £61.13 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £76.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.29% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £84.63 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £100.80 - £70.21
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -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 25,420 13,684 16,344
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.56% 89.93% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,236 8,376 9,710
10th Percentile £304 £213 £225
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 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £686
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,129 1,234 1,513
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.27 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.17 £19.18
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +12.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.75 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £72.20 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -6 389 £540 -1.82% 228
North of England -8 330 £575 +4.55% 188
Midlands +4 240 £500 -9.09% 120
North West -5 216 £566 -1.57% 123
South West +8 206 £550 -8.33% 165
West Midlands +7 170 £481 -12.55% 104
Scotland +22 126 £450 -7.69% 70
East of England -16 98 £552 +0.36% 113
Yorkshire -13 93 £575 +12.20% 32
East Midlands -6 63 £525 -4.55% 14
Wales -17 22 £550 +22.22% 12
North East -31 20 £750 +37.61% 33
Northern Ireland -5 2 £544 +4.57% 95
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 5 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.

1 406 (29.21%) Security Cleared
2 334 (24.03%) SAP
3 271 (19.50%) SC Cleared
4 213 (15.32%) Stakeholder Management
5 188 (13.53%) Microsoft
6 159 (11.44%) Migration
7 156 (11.22%) Oracle
8 142 (10.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 132 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
9 132 (9.50%) Problem-Solving
10 124 (8.92%) Continuous Improvement
11 123 (8.85%) Azure
11 123 (8.85%) ERP
12 108 (7.77%) SAP S/4HANA
13 105 (7.55%) SQL
14 103 (7.41%) DV Cleared
14 103 (7.41%) Validation
15 102 (7.34%) Workshop Facilitation
16 93 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
17 88 (6.33%) AWS
18 85 (6.12%) Roadmaps
19 81 (5.83%) Agile
20 76 (5.47%) Analytics
21 71 (5.11%) Data Migration
22 68 (4.89%) Knowledge Transfer
23 65 (4.68%) Risk Management
24 64 (4.60%) Requirements Gathering
25 63 (4.53%) Translating Business Requirements
26 60 (4.32%) Power Platform
26 60 (4.32%) 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 26 (1.87%) Confluence
2 13 (0.94%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
3 8 (0.58%) WebSphere
4 7 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.22%) Apache
5 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
5 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
6 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.072%) SAS
7 1 (0.072%) Tomcat
Applications
1 34 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.01%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.65%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.072%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 108 (7.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.30%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.80%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.58%) Oracle EBS
5 21 (1.51%) SAP MM
6 20 (1.44%) Oracle Payables
6 20 (1.44%) SAP EWM
7 18 (1.29%) SAP Payroll
7 18 (1.29%) Workday HCM
8 17 (1.22%) Oracle Receivables
8 17 (1.22%) SAP FI
8 17 (1.22%) SAP SD
9 16 (1.15%) SAP QM
10 14 (1.01%) SAP HCM
11 13 (0.94%) SAP PP
12 12 (0.86%) SAP HR
13 11 (0.79%) NetSuite
13 11 (0.79%) Teamcenter
14 10 (0.72%) SAP CO
14 10 (0.72%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 123 (8.85%) Azure
2 88 (6.33%) AWS
3 60 (4.32%) Power Platform
3 60 (4.32%) SuccessFactors
4 58 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
5 51 (3.67%) GCP
6 49 (3.53%) OCI
7 33 (2.37%) Microsoft 365
8 30 (2.16%) Entra ID
9 24 (1.73%) Power Automate
10 14 (1.01%) SaaS
11 12 (0.86%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.86%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 11 (0.79%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.72%) GitHub
13 10 (0.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 32 (2.30%) Network Security
2 22 (1.58%) Firewall
3 18 (1.29%) SNMP
4 12 (0.86%) BGP
4 12 (0.86%) WAN
5 8 (0.58%) DNS
5 8 (0.58%) VPN
6 7 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.43%) LAN
7 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.43%) VSAN
8 5 (0.36%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) DHCP
9 4 (0.29%) FTP
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) HTTP
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (2.45%) Power BI
2 28 (2.01%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 16 (1.15%) SAP BW
3 16 (1.15%) SAP HANA
4 15 (1.08%) Oracle ODI
5 14 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.79%) Tableau
7 10 (0.72%) Metadata
8 9 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
9 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
10 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
10 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
11 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.36%) Power Query
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.45%) JIRA
2 11 (0.79%) Git
2 11 (0.79%) Hudson
3 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.22%) GitLab
5 3 (0.22%) Toad
5 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.14%) Postman
6 2 (0.14%) TestRail
6 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
6 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.072%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.072%) JMeter
7 1 (0.072%) Oracle APEX
7 1 (0.072%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 328 (23.60%) Social Skills
2 274 (19.71%) Finance
3 124 (8.92%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (7.99%) Public Sector
5 55 (3.96%) Manufacturing
6 31 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
6 31 (2.23%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.16%) General Ledger
7 30 (2.16%) Legal
8 26 (1.87%) Banking
8 26 (1.87%) Telecoms
9 20 (1.44%) Billing
9 20 (1.44%) Retail
10 19 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
11 15 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.01%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.86%) Marketing
14 11 (0.79%) Aerospace
15 10 (0.72%) Military
16 9 (0.65%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (2.95%) REST
2 34 (2.45%) Oracle Fusion
3 25 (1.80%) XML
4 21 (1.51%) SOAP
4 21 (1.51%) Terraform
5 17 (1.22%) Middleware
5 17 (1.22%) SailPoint
5 17 (1.22%) SAP Fiori
6 16 (1.15%) LDAP
7 13 (0.94%) Web Services
8 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.50%) SAP Basis
10 6 (0.43%) EDI
10 6 (0.43%) IDoc
10 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.36%) JDBC
11 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.36%) RESTful
11 5 (0.36%) SLSA
12 4 (0.29%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 45 (3.24%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
3 24 (1.73%) CMDB
3 24 (1.73%) Operational Technology
4 22 (1.58%) Security Posture
5 15 (1.08%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.01%) PKI
7 13 (0.94%) Replication
8 12 (0.86%) Cloud Native
8 12 (0.86%) Management Information System
9 11 (0.79%) Data Centre
9 11 (0.79%) Data Structures
9 11 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (0.72%) Learning Management System
11 9 (0.65%) FMCG
12 8 (0.58%) Private Cloud
12 8 (0.58%) Public Cloud
13 7 (0.50%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (0.50%) Greenfield Project
13 7 (0.50%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 58 (4.17%) Windows
2 42 (3.02%) Linux
3 17 (1.22%) Solaris
4 12 (0.86%) AIX
4 12 (0.86%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.72%) Unix
6 7 (0.50%) VMS
7 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.072%) Android
9 1 (0.072%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.072%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 213 (15.32%) Stakeholder Management
2 159 (11.44%) Migration
3 142 (10.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 132 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
4 132 (9.50%) Problem-Solving
5 124 (8.92%) Continuous Improvement
6 123 (8.85%) ERP
7 103 (7.41%) Validation
8 102 (7.34%) Workshop Facilitation
9 93 (6.69%) User Acceptance Testing
10 85 (6.12%) Roadmaps
11 81 (5.83%) Agile
12 76 (5.47%) Analytics
13 71 (5.11%) Data Migration
14 68 (4.89%) Knowledge Transfer
15 65 (4.68%) Risk Management
16 64 (4.60%) Requirements Gathering
17 63 (4.53%) Translating Business Requirements
18 55 (3.96%) CI/CD
18 55 (3.96%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 105 (7.55%) SQL
2 57 (4.10%) Python
3 29 (2.09%) ABAP
4 28 (2.01%) PowerShell
5 22 (1.58%) PL/SQL
6 17 (1.22%) JavaScript
7 16 (1.15%) T-SQL
8 13 (0.94%) Java
8 13 (0.94%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.86%) Bash
10 10 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 3 (0.22%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.14%) Groovy
13 2 (0.14%) Magik
13 2 (0.14%) Perl
13 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 406 (29.21%) Security Cleared
2 271 (19.50%) SC Cleared
3 103 (7.41%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.24%) CISSP
5 56 (4.03%) BPSS Clearance
6 47 (3.38%) CISM
7 36 (2.59%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 27 (1.94%) CCSP
10 26 (1.87%) Degree
11 13 (0.94%) ACCA
11 13 (0.94%) CIMA
12 11 (0.79%) PMP
13 10 (0.72%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.72%) CRISC
14 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.58%) CCSK
14 8 (0.58%) CEH
14 8 (0.58%) OSCP
14 8 (0.58%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.38%) NIST
2 44 (3.17%) GRC
3 37 (2.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.52%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.58%) QA
6 16 (1.15%) SLA
7 15 (1.08%) NCSC
8 14 (1.01%) GDPR
9 13 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
10 10 (0.72%) PCI DSS
10 10 (0.72%) PMO
11 9 (0.65%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.43%) COBIT
13 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 5 (0.36%) RMADS
14 5 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.29%) WCAG
16 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 48 (3.45%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (1.08%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (0.79%) vSphere
6 9 (0.65%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
10 1 (0.072%) NFS
10 1 (0.072%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 26 (1.87%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.29%) Ansible
3 11 (0.79%) Nagios
3 11 (0.79%) vRealize
3 11 (0.79%) ZABBIX
4 10 (0.72%) Netcool
4 10 (0.72%) Tivoli
4 10 (0.72%) vCenter Server
5 9 (0.65%) OpenView
5 9 (0.65%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 7 (0.50%) Grafana
7 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.43%) VxRail
8 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.29%) NetBackup
8 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.29%) SCCM
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 334 (24.03%) SAP
2 188 (13.53%) Microsoft
3 156 (11.22%) Oracle
4 59 (4.24%) ServiceNow
5 32 (2.30%) VMware
6 26 (1.87%) Splunk
7 21 (1.51%) Workday
8 20 (1.44%) Salesforce
9 18 (1.29%) Ariba
10 16 (1.15%) BMC
11 15 (1.08%) Databricks
12 14 (1.01%) JD Edwards
13 12 (0.86%) IBM
14 11 (0.79%) CyberArk
14 11 (0.79%) SolarWinds
15 10 (0.72%) HP
16 9 (0.65%) Informatica
17 8 (0.58%) Cisco
17 8 (0.58%) Google
17 8 (0.58%) Veeam