You're not alone in this. It's seems to be that in UK to get work is hard .. lot of agencies that lie about salary. It's more or less my friend the classic "it's not what you know, it's who you know"..
When it comes to technology, be sure you learn reactjs, angularjs, java and puppets. 99% of companies are needing these technologies.
There is nasty companies out there, don't bother to do demos eather for them, you'll never know are they gonna use it in they products. (I experienced this)
Allo allo Google yourself!