How to start a cleaning business in the UK

Cleaning is one of the most accessible businesses to start in the UK. You need no qualification by law, little equipment and no premises. That openness has a flip side: clients have dozens of firms to choose from, and the ones that keep contracts for years are the ones that turn up on time, every time, with the same faces.

This guide covers England, with notes for Scotland and Wales where the rules differ. Northern Ireland has its own waste registration process.

Domestic, commercial or specialist: choose a lane

What you clean shapes how you sell, how you price and which rules bite hardest. Domestic cleaning means many small clients, keys to homes and weekly visits. Commercial cleaning means fewer, larger contracts, evening shifts and invoices with purchase order numbers. Specialist work such as windows, end-of-tenancy or after-builders cleans brings equipment and safety rules of its own.

Most firms that last start in one lane and add a second only once the first is profitable.

Registering the business

As a sole trader you register for Self Assessment with HMRC and keep records of income and expenses. A limited company costs 100 pounds to register online with Companies House and usually takes less than a day; a postal application costs 124 pounds.

VAT registration becomes compulsory when your taxable turnover in the last 12 months exceeds 90,000 pounds. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax already applies to sole traders with qualifying income over 50,000 pounds since April 2026, and reaches those over 30,000 pounds from April 2027, so keep digital records from day one. Commercial clients will also expect structured e-invoices once the UK rollout starts on 1 April 2029; read about e-invoicing in the UK before you choose accounting software.

A domestic cleaning firm holds names, addresses, door codes and sometimes alarm codes. Most firms like that pay the ICO data protection fee of 52 or 78 pounds a year unless exempt, and publish a clear privacy notice; see do I need a privacy policy.

Waste: when you need a carrier registration

If your business transports waste, you must register as a waste carrier. Registration is usually free when you only transport waste you produce yourself. When you take away clients' waste, for example after an end-of-tenancy clean or a builders' clean, registration costs 191.02 pounds. An upper tier registration must be renewed every three years for 130.25 pounds; a lower tier one does not need renewing.

Report changes to your contact details or management within 28 days. Changing from sole trader to limited company counts as a new business type and needs a new registration. Wales and Scotland run their own registration, so register there if that is where you work. Operating without registration can lead to an unlimited fine.

Chemicals and COSHH

Cleaning products are the most common hazardous substances in the trade. The COSHH regulations require employers to plan, manage and monitor substances hazardous to health. In practice that means a risk assessment for each product you use, safety data sheets on file, the right gloves and ventilation, and training so staff never mix products that react.

Keep it simple: fewer products, clearly labelled, with a one-page sheet per product in the van. When a client asks what you use in their kitchen or surgery, you can answer straight away.

Ladders, windows and work at height

The work at height rules follow a clear order. Avoid working at height where you reasonably can. Where you cannot, prevent falls with a safe place of work or the right equipment. Where the risk remains, minimise the distance and the consequences of a fall. Ladders and stepladders are for light work of short duration, at most 30 minutes at a time.

For a window cleaner that points towards water-fed poles that keep the team on the ground. For high internal surfaces, a podium step or a mobile tower is often the better answer than a ladder. In Scotland, the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 provides for a window cleaner's licence, so ask your council whether it applies before you take on work there.

Paying cleaners correctly

Minimum wage rules hit cleaning firms harder than most trades because of travel. The National Living Wage is 12.71 pounds an hour from April 2026 and rises to 13.21 pounds from April 2027. Time spent travelling between clients counts as working time, so a cleaner paid only for time inside each property can fall below the legal rate without anyone noticing.

Other rules follow: 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week; a 48-hour average weekly limit unless the worker opts out; and 11 hours of rest between working days. Employers' liability insurance with at least 5 million pounds of cover is compulsory once you employ anyone.

Track hours with a time tracking app that records arrival and departure at each address. Build rotas in staff scheduling software so travel gaps and rest periods show up before the week starts. The guide on Excel scheduling or planning software helps you decide when a spreadsheet stops being enough.

Taking over a contract: TUPE

Commercial cleaning contracts change hands often. When a client moves its cleaning from one contractor to another, that is usually a service provision change under TUPE. The cleaners who worked on the contract are likely to transfer to the new contractor on their existing terms. The outgoing employer must give employee liability information at least four weeks before the transfer.

Before you bid for a large contract, ask how many staff work on it now, their hours and their pay. A contract that looks profitable at your own rates may not be once you inherit a team on higher terms.

What to record on every visit

A work order app with a checklist and a photo per visit turns these records into a habit rather than a chore.

Start-up costs at a glance

Month one, step by step

1. Days 1 to 7. Pick your lane, register the business and open a separate bank account.
2. Days 8 to 14. Arrange public liability insurance, choose your products and write a COSHH sheet for each.
3. Days 15 to 21. Write task lists per type of premises, set an hourly rate and hire or line up your first cleaner.
4. Days 22 to 30. Publish your site and Google profile and visit offices, surgeries and letting agents nearby.

Pricing an hour of cleaning

Cleaning prices are almost all labour. Start from the true cost of an hour: wage, holiday, travel, products and the time you cannot bill. The break-even calculator shows how many hours you need to sell each month, and the margin calculator checks what each contract leaves. An AI quote generator can turn a walk-round of a building into a priced quote in minutes.

Winning and keeping clients

Clients switch cleaners after a bad experience and judge the next one on reviews and response time. A complete Google Business Profile and a habit of asking for reviews every month, as the guide to getting more Google reviews explains, bring the first enquiries.

Staff turnover is the quiet threat. A rota that keeps the same cleaner with the same client builds loyalty on both sides; the idea of employer branding explains why your job adverts matter as much as your sales pitch, and AI for HR shows where screening can be faster.

A site with a quote form per type of premises does the rest. VBS builds one from 1,500 euro; our website design page shows how. When you grow to dozens of staff, custom software can bring scheduling, hours and invoicing into one place.

Your next move

With the business registered, the right rules covered and a reliable record of hours, you are ready to sign your first contract. Our page for cleaning companies shows how a schedule board, a check-in app and automatic invoices work together for a growing cleaning firm.