London day rates I've seen for contractors are more like 700 - 900/day on average at places that pay a bit better and 1000+ for specialists. And base salaries I've seen advertised for senior developers at funded startups (e.g. Wagestream, Truelayer) are more like 105k now (more for higher levelings - i.e. Principal/Staff).
Good news about the day rates! I wonder how much of this is about stack - most of my knowledge is of the generic Java development scene, and I'm extremely out of touch even with that now
On the permanent positions, that sounds like a seniority thing. The people I know aren't staff or principal. I know someone who's sort of head of engineering at a small but healthy startup, and I think he's on 120k or something.
I hope to see day rate contracting adapt to the new legislation and make a big return, though i'm not holding my breath.
As a data point, i'm London based, moved from £800 per day to £140k permanent position last year. "Lead Architect" role, whatever that means these days and ~18yrs experience in the industry. I'll be returning the contract work as soon as I see the market bouncing back.
