How to get cleaning contracts in the UK

Commercial cleaning work comes from a handful of buyer types:

• Offices, shops and small businesses that hire a cleaner directly.
• Schools, GP surgeries, dental practices and nurseries.
• Landlords, block managers and managing agents who need communal areas cleaned.
• Facilities management companies that look after many buildings and subcontract the cleaning.
• Councils, housing associations, NHS bodies and other public buyers, which usually tender.
• Builders and developers who need sparkle cleans at the end of a job.

Each one buys differently. A small office manager wants someone reliable and easy to deal with. A public buyer wants documents, a method statement and a price that scores well.

Public sector cleaning contracts are advertised:

1. 1Contracts Finder lists contracts worth over £12,000 including VAT with the government and its agencies. You can save searches and get email alerts. You can search and apply without an account.
2. 2Find a Tender lists high value contracts, usually above £139,688 including VAT.
3. 3Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own portals: Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and the Northern Ireland eTendersNI and eSourcing NI sites.
4. 4GOV.UK suggests contacting your local council or public sector organisation about how to become an approved supplier, so ask each one how it buys smaller contracts.

Private contracts are rarely advertised. You find them by asking. Walk your local business parks and high streets, introduce yourself to block managers and managing agents, and ask existing clients who else they know who needs a cleaner.

Buyers compare more than price. Have these ready before you bid:

• Insurance certificates, such as public liability and employers' liability.
• Health and safety policy, risk assessments and how you handle cleaning chemicals.
• A method statement: what gets cleaned, how often, by whom and how you check quality.
• How you cover sickness and holidays so the building is never missed.
• Staff vetting and training, and your keyholding and security procedures.
• References from current clients, ideally similar buildings.

Then read the specification carefully and answer every question. Many tenders are lost on missing documents, not on price.

Two costs decide whether a contract is worth winning.

First, TUPE. GOV.UK says TUPE can apply to a service provision change, including when a contract ends and is given to a new contractor, or a service such as cleaning is moved from in-house to a contractor. When TUPE applies, the employees usually transfer to the new contractor on their existing terms. Before you price a contract that's changing hands, ask the buyer for the staff information, because their pay, hours and holiday become your cost.

Second, wages. The National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour from April 2026. Your price has to cover that, plus employer National Insurance, pension, holiday, cover, travel time, supervision, materials and your margin.

For example, a contract needing 20 cleaning hours a week can't be priced at 20 times the hourly wage. By the time you add those costs and your overheads, the hourly price to the client will be well above it. Our guide on how to price cleaning jobs works through the full sum, including the true cost of employing cleaners.

Facilities management companies look after many buildings for their clients and often subcontract cleaning. Winning one can mean several sites at once.

1. 1Find the facilities managers and managing agents who look after buildings in your area.
2. 2Ask what they need from a cleaning contractor and how they add suppliers.
3. 3Start with one site, deliver it perfectly and report problems before the client notices them.
4. 4Answer their calls. A facilities manager with a cleaner off sick at 7am needs someone who picks up.

Reliability is what they buy. Missed cleans and unanswered phones lose contracts faster than price.

Domestic clients search locally and ask friends, so:

• Fill in your Google Business Profile. Google's advice is to keep your information complete and accurate, respond to reviews and add photos. If clients don't visit you, hide your address and set a service area.
• Ask regular clients for reviews and referrals. One happy client often knows three more.
• Offer end of tenancy cleans to local letting agents and landlords.
• Consider Google Local Services Ads, which include cleaning. Google warns that if you regularly fail to answer calls or respond to messages, your ad ranking may be affected.
• Keep your cleaning business marketing consistent: the same name and number on your website, profile, leaflets and uniforms.

Quickly, because people asking for cleaning quotes usually ask several companies at once. In a 2026 survey, 75% of UK adults said they'd give a business three call attempts before giving up on it. Many won't leave a voicemail at all, as our guide on whether anyone still leaves voicemail shows.

The cost of a missed enquiry is its value times the chance it would have booked. For example, a regular weekly domestic clean worth £60 a visit is over £3,000 a year if the client stays. Miss one of those enquiries a week, booking one time in three, and the lost work adds up fast. Put your own numbers into our missed call calculator.

Then follow up:

1. 1Ring back missed callers within the hour where you can, or at least text them. Our guide to missed call text back covers what that does and doesn't fix.
2. 2Send quotes the same day after a walk-round.
3. 3Chase quotes after two or three days, and again a week later for commercial contracts.

Pest control firms sell to many of the same buildings. Our guide on how to get more pest control jobs covers commercial service agreements from their side.