The Cheapest Cleaning Contract Can Carry a Hidden Cost
Cleaning is essential.
Our hospitals need it.
Housing estates need it.
Businesses need it.
Public spaces need it.
Vehicles need it.
But when price becomes the only measure of value, there is a danger that somebody further down the supply chain pays the real cost.
Research from Nottingham Trent University and The Clewer Initiative into Britain’s hand car wash sector has highlighted serious concerns around exploitation, illegal employment, inadequate pay, missing employment records, PPE and first aid.
Although the research focuses specifically on hand car washes, it raises a much wider question for organisations purchasing cleaning services:
Do we know who is doing the work, how they are being treated and what social impact our spending creates?
At Clean Futures, we believe responsible cleaning should create value for customers, workers and communities.
Cleaning Should Create Opportunity
Cleaning is sometimes dismissed as low-skilled work.
We see it differently.
Professional cleaning requires:
reliability;
attention to detail;
health and safety awareness;
customer service;
teamwork;
equipment knowledge;
chemical awareness;
time management;
quality control;
and responsibility.
It can also provide an accessible first step into employment for somebody who may have struggled to enter other sectors.
That matters enormously when Britain has more than one million young people outside education, employment and training.
Cleaning can become part of the solution.
Clean Futures: Commercial Cleaning With Social Purpose
Clean Futures has been developed as a social enterprise approach to delivering practical environmental and cleaning services while creating pathways into employment.
Our work includes activities such as:
- external cleaning;
- bin store cleaning;
- wheelie bin cleaning;
- pressure washing;
- community environmental improvements;
- vehicle-related cleaning through the wider Genuine Futures ecosystem.
But the service is only one half of the model.
The other half is opportunity.
Commercial activity can create environments where people develop skills, confidence, experience and ultimately progression.
From Contract to Social Impact
Consider a housing provider commissioning a conventional cleaning contract.
The organisation pays.
The work gets completed.
End of transaction.
Now imagine that same expenditure purchasing a professional service while simultaneously helping somebody develop experience and move towards employment.
The bin store still gets cleaned.
The external area still gets pressure washed.
The customer still receives the required service.
But the pound achieves more.
That is social value in practice.
Not an additional project sitting alongside procurement.
Social impact embedded directly into normal commercial spending.
Procurement Can Become Prevention
Public organisations spend billions purchasing services.
That spending has enormous potential to influence communities.
Housing providers.
Councils.
NHS organisations.
Schools.
Businesses.
Facilities management companies.
Government agencies.
All purchase cleaning and environmental services.
Opening appropriate parts of those supply chains to responsible social enterprises can turn ordinary operational spending into preventative investment.
A contract can help create someone’s first work experience.
That experience can create a reference.
The reference can create employment.
Employment creates income.
Income creates independence.
That is how procurement can contribute to prevention.
Britain’s Youth Employment Challenge
The Government-commissioned Milburn Review into young people and work highlights the scale of Britain’s youth employment challenge.
At the end of 2025, 957,000 young people aged 16 to 24 were NEET.
Government has subsequently described the figure as more than one million.
But those statistics can hide the reality.
Some young people have never had their first proper opportunity.
Others have been rejected repeatedly.
Some need more support before entering mainstream employment.
And some simply perform far better in practical environments than in classrooms.
Cleaning and environmental services can provide that practical environment.
Real Work Builds Real Skills
There is an important difference between learning about employment and experiencing employment.
When someone arrives at a cleaning job, standards matter.
The customer expects the work to be completed.
Equipment needs to be used safely.
Colleagues rely on each other.
Time needs to be managed.
Problems need to be solved.
Quality matters.
That creates a real learning environment.
It develops transferable skills that can lead into facilities management, environmental services, construction, maintenance, logistics and many other industries.
Ethical Employment Must Be Non-Negotiable
If social enterprise is going to challenge exploitation, it has to demonstrate high standards itself.
That means responsible approaches to:
employment;
safeguarding;
health and safety;
PPE;
insurance;
training;
risk assessment;
chemical handling;
equipment;
environmental responsibility;
and worker development.
Being a social enterprise does not lower the commercial standard.
It should raise it.
Customers should expect professionalism.
They should also be able to see the additional value their purchasing decision creates.
Social Value Should Be Measurable
The words “social value” appear in countless procurement documents.
But what does it actually mean?
We believe customers should increasingly be able to see tangible outcomes.
For example:
How many people gained work experience?
How many training hours were created?
How many people progressed towards employment?
How many local people were involved?
How many paid opportunities were created?
How much contract expenditure stayed within the local economy?
How did the physical environment improve?
These measures turn social value from a promise into evidence.
Housing Providers Have a Major Opportunity
Housing providers are particularly well placed to support this approach.
They already purchase significant volumes of:
estate cleaning;
grounds maintenance;
waste management;
void cleaning;
window cleaning;
external cleaning;
pressure washing;
environmental services.
Imagine if more of that spending directly supported residents and young people within those same communities.
The estate improves.
Residents see investment happening.
People gain skills.
Local employment grows.
Relationships strengthen.
That creates both economic and social impact.
A Better Model for Community Regeneration
Regeneration cannot simply be about buildings.
Places improve when people have opportunity.
Clean, safe and cared-for environments matter.
So do jobs.
So does belonging.
The two can work together.
A community environmental project can improve a physical space while creating a conversation with a resident.
That conversation can lead to volunteering.
Volunteering can lead to experience.
Experience can lead to employment.
Sometimes the pathway starts while cleaning a bin store or pressure washing an estate.
The important thing is having a pathway available.
Businesses Can Become Anchor Customers
Private businesses can play exactly the same role.
Rather than seeing corporate social responsibility solely as donations or sponsorship, businesses can examine their everyday spending.
Who cleans the premises?
Who washes the fleet?
Who pressure washes the yard?
Who handles environmental maintenance?
Could some of that expenditure go to a responsible social enterprise?
This approach can be considerably more sustainable than one-off charitable giving.
The business receives something it already needs.
The social enterprise receives recurring income.
And people gain opportunity.
Sustainability Means Trading
Grant funding can be incredibly valuable for developing new approaches and supporting people requiring intensive help.
But social enterprises should also work towards sustainable earned income.
Clean Futures has the potential to generate revenue through professional commercial services.
That revenue can help support further opportunities.
More customers can mean more work.
More work can mean more training.
More training can mean more employment.
That creates a virtuous economic cycle.
Commercial growth and social impact can reinforce each other.
Our Challenge to Commissioners
When commissioning your next cleaning or environmental contract, don’t only ask:
“How much will it cost?”
Ask:
Who benefits from the money we spend?
Could that contract create employment?
Could it train somebody?
Could it provide work experience?
Could it support a local enterprise?
Could it keep money circulating within the community?
Could it help prevent somebody becoming further disconnected from employment?
Price matters.
Quality matters.
But value should include more than both.
From Cleaning to Futures
Research into exploitation within parts of Britain’s hand car wash sector demonstrates what can happen when low prices and informal employment are allowed to overshadow worker protection.
There is another way.
Cleaning can provide legitimate work.
It can create skills.
It can build confidence.
It can create businesses.
It can improve neighbourhoods.
And through social enterprise, commercial activity can create measurable community benefit.
That is the future we want to help demonstrate through Clean Futures.
Become a Clean Futures Partner
We want to work with:
housing providers, councils, NHS organisations, facilities management companies, schools, businesses, construction companies, landlords, community organisations and responsible procurement teams.
If you have cleaning or environmental work that needs doing, talk to us.
Don’t simply sponsor social impact.
Buy it.
Commission a service your organisation already needs and help create opportunity at the same time.
Because a cleaner community can create something much bigger.
A pathway to a cleaner future.
Clean Futures — commercial services with community impact.