Commercial cleaning is one of the most accessible sectors for small businesses entering public procurement. Councils, schools, NHS facilities and government offices all need regular cleaning services, and many actively encourage SME suppliers.
Government cleaning contracts cover office and building cleaning, school cleaning, NHS and social care facilities, deep cleaning, window cleaning and specialist services. Contracts vary from a single building to estate-wide frameworks. Many are awarded locally, which gives smaller businesses a genuine advantage.
Cleaning is the sector where small businesses have the clearest structural advantage in public procurement. Buyers genuinely value local presence, because when a school needs someone on site within the hour, a contractor twenty minutes away beats a national provider with a regional call centre. That is a real competitive edge and it is worth stating explicitly in your bids.
The volumes are consistent. Every council office, library, leisure centre, depot, school and health centre needs daily cleaning, and that requirement does not disappear in a spending review. Contracts are typically let for three years with extension options, which means winning one materially changes the shape of a small cleaning business.
The complication specific to this sector is TUPE. Most cleaning contracts involve an incumbent provider whose staff transfer to you if you win. This is not a reason to avoid bidding, but it is a reason to read the employee liability information carefully before pricing. Underestimating inherited wage costs, holiday accrual or pension obligations is the most common way cleaning firms win a contract and then lose money on it.
Buyers are also increasingly scoring environmental credentials. Questions about chemical usage, dosing systems, microfibre, water consumption and packaging waste appear routinely. Small firms often do better here than they expect, because concentrated dosing and reusable equipment are cheaper as well as greener.
£15,000 to £500K
Yes, and cleaning is one of the most SME-accessible sectors in public procurement. Many contracts are for a single building or a small local cluster, and buyers actively value nearby providers who can respond quickly. Local presence is a genuine scoring advantage rather than a disadvantage.
TUPE is the regulation that transfers existing staff to the incoming contractor when a service changes hands. If a contract has an incumbent provider, their cleaning staff will normally transfer to you on their existing terms, including pay, holiday entitlement and length of service. You must request the employee liability information and price the contract using those inherited costs.
CHAS or SafeContractor for health and safety is the most commonly requested. ISO 14001 for environmental management and BICSc training records strengthen a bid considerably. For healthcare cleaning, evidence of infection control training is usually expected.
Typical values run from around £15,000 a year for a single small site up to £500,000 or more for a multi-site estate contract. Most contracts accessible to smaller firms sit between £20,000 and £150,000 annually, usually let for three years with extension options.
No, and bidding too low is actively risky. Public sector cleaning tenders are normally scored on a quality-price split, often 40:60 or 50:50. Bids priced abnormally low can be rejected on the grounds that the bidder has misunderstood the scope or cannot deliver sustainably.
Not for your first contract. Buyers ask for comparable contracts, and commercial cleaning of similar size and building type is normally acceptable. Offices, retail units and private schools all make credible references for a council or school bid.
It varies by buyer. Many councils and NHS trusts specify the Real Living Wage as a contract condition, and an increasing number make it mandatory. Always check the specification before pricing, because it materially changes your cost base.