When you see a headline like this, the numbers tell one story while the reality tells another.
There are few industries more essential to modern life than cleaning. Every hospital, school, office, factory, warehouse, transport hub and public building depends on the people and businesses that quietly work behind the scenes to keep environments safe, hygienic and operational. Yet despite the critical role the industry plays, it is often overlooked, discussed only when standards slip or something goes wrong.
That is why the latest figures published by the British Cleaning Council deserve attention. According to its most recent research, the UK cleaning, hygiene and waste sector now contributes £71.9 billion to the UK economy each year, supports approximately 1.51 million jobs, representing around 5% of the national workforce, and is made up of almost 79,000 businesses operating across the country. Together, those figures place the sector among the ten largest industries in the UK. (British Cleaning Council Research Report 2026)
On the surface, this sounds like a success story.
An industry worth almost £72 billion should be thriving. Businesses should be growing, investment should be increasing and owners should be feeling optimistic about the future. After all, demand for cleaning has never been more important. The COVID-19 pandemic permanently changed how organisations think about hygiene, infection prevention and the environments in which people live and work. Standards have risen, expectations have increased and cleaning has become recognised as an essential service rather than an optional expense.
So why does the mood within the industry often feel so different?
Speak to enough cleaning business owners and a very different picture begins to emerge. Many describe working longer hours than ever before, employing more people than they did a few years ago, yet somehow taking home less profit. Winning a new contract can feel like a victory, only for rising wages, higher operating costs and increasing customer expectations to erode the margin before the ink on the agreement has even dried. Growth, it seems, is not always translating into prosperity.
That contradiction raises an important question. If the industry is becoming larger every year, who is actually benefiting from that growth?
Bigger does not always mean better
One of the easiest mistakes to make when looking at industry statistics is to assume that a growing market automatically means businesses within that market are becoming more successful. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
The British Cleaning Council’s research paints a picture of a sector that continues to expand, but it also reveals something that is often overlooked. Around 83% of businesses operating within the cleaning, hygiene and waste sector are micro businesses, many employing only a handful of people. These are family businesses, owner managed companies and local contractors who form the backbone of the industry. They are also the businesses most exposed when costs rise or contracts become less profitable. (British Cleaning Council Research Report 2026)
The headline figure of £71.9 billion can therefore be misleading if viewed in isolation. It represents the value of the entire cleaning, hygiene and waste sector, which includes facilities management, waste services, laundry, pest control, environmental services and many other specialist activities. In fact, facilities management alone accounts for almost 46% of the sector’s economic contribution, while core cleaning activities represent a much smaller share. Those numbers are worth celebrating because they demonstrate the importance of the wider industry, but they do not necessarily reflect the financial reality facing thousands of independent commercial cleaning companies. (British Cleaning Council Research Report 2026)
For many business owners, the experience on the ground feels very different from the headline statistics. Over the past few years, employment costs have continued to increase through higher National Living Wage rates, changes to Employer National Insurance contributions and pension obligations. At the same time, insurance premiums have risen, fuel remains unpredictable, cleaning chemicals and consumables cost more than they once did and replacing equipment has become increasingly expensive. Customers, however, often expect businesses to absorb those increases without significantly changing the price they pay.
The result is that many companies are finding themselves caught in the middle. Demand for cleaning continues to grow, yet profitability is under constant pressure. Turnover may increase because contracts become larger or wage costs are passed on, but that does not necessarily mean there is more money left at the end of the month. In many cases, businesses are simply managing larger sums of money while keeping a smaller proportion of it.
Perhaps that is the conversation our industry needs to have.
For too long, success has been measured by turnover, contract values and the number of employees on the payroll. Those figures certainly matter, but they do not tell us whether businesses are healthy, whether owners are building sustainable companies or whether the industry is creating long term value for the people who keep it running every day.
As we celebrate the remarkable achievement of becoming a £72 billion industry, we should also be asking a more difficult question.
If the industry is growing, why do so many cleaning businesses still feel like they are standing still?
One of the biggest reasons many businesses struggle is the relentless race to the bottom on price. We’ve explored this issue in more detail in Why Cheapest Isn’t Always Best: The Hidden Cost of Price Driven Cleaning Contracts.
