In-house vs contract cleaning: key facts
- An employed cleaner costs much more than their hourly wage. Holiday, employer NI and pension are added to pay, and someone has to clean while they're on leave.
- Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. For a cleaner on 20 hours a week, that's 112 paid hours with no cleaning done unless you arrange cover.
- On our worked example, one cleaner on 20 hours a week at the 2026 National Living Wage (£12.71) costs about £16,126 a year in pay, NI, pension and holiday cover wages: about £15.46 per hour of cleaning, before kit, chemicals, insurance, sick cover or management time.
- You must have employers' liability insurance of at least £5 million from the day you become an employer, or face fines of £2,500 a day (GOV.UK).
- Workers aged 22 to State Pension age who earn at least £10,000 a year must be automatically enrolled in a workplace pension, with an employer contribution of at least 3% of qualifying earnings.
- The Employment Allowance (up to £10,500 in 2026/27) can wipe out the employer NI on an in-house cleaner, but only if your business is eligible and hasn't already used it.
- TUPE can apply both ways. GOV.UK lists cleaning as an example of a service provision change when work moves to a contractor, and when a contract ends and the work comes back in-house.
In-house vs contract cleaning: what's the real difference?
With in-house cleaning you employ the cleaners, so you carry the cost and the legal duties of an employer and manage the work yourself. With contract cleaning a cleaning company employs and manages them, and you pay a price for an agreed specification.
Both routes get the building cleaned. What changes is who employs the people and who carries the risk.
| Question | In-house cleaning | Contract cleaning |
|---|---|---|
| Who employs the cleaners? | You do. You run payroll and are their employer in law. | The contractor does. You have a contract with the company, not the cleaners. |
| Who covers holidays and sickness? | You do, by paying someone else or going without. | The contractor, if the contract says so. |
| Who buys equipment and chemicals? | You do, and you assess the chemicals under COSHH. | Usually the contractor; check the contract. |
| Who trains and supervises? | You or one of your managers. | The contractor's supervisor, with you checking results. |
| What do you pay? | Wages plus every on-cost, as they arise. | One agreed price, usually monthly, reviewed under the contract terms. |
| How do you change the service? | Within the employee's contract, or by agreement with them. | Within the contract terms, often with a price change. |
If you're weighing up a contractor for the first time, read contract cleaning for how cleaning contracts are usually structured: term, notice, price reviews and performance measures.
What does it really cost to employ your own cleaner?
Pay at least the National Living Wage, paid holiday of 5.6 weeks a year plus cover for it, employer NI above £5,000 a year, a 3% pension contribution for eligible workers, Statutory Sick Pay from day one plus cover, employers' liability insurance, equipment, chemicals, training and your own time to recruit and manage.
Some of these are fixed by law. Others depend on how you run things. Put a figure on each one before you compare with a contractor.
Costs set by law
- Pay. At least the National Living Wage: £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from 1 April 2026, and £13.21 from 1 April 2027. Rates change every 1 April. For 18 to 20 year olds the 2026 rate is £10.85. The real Living Wage (£14.10, or £15.45 in London) is voluntary.
- Holiday. Most workers get 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. A part-time cleaner on regular hours still gets 5.6 weeks, which is fewer than 28 days. You can count bank holidays as part of it, which helps if the building closes on those days anyway.
- Employer National Insurance. 15% of each employee's earnings above £5,000 a year in 2026/27.
- Pension. You must automatically enrol workers aged between 22 and State Pension age who earn at least £10,000 a year, and pay at least 3% of their qualifying earnings (the band usually starts at £6,240). A cleaner below the £10,000 trigger can usually still ask to join, and you can't refuse.
- Sick pay. Statutory Sick Pay in 2026/27 is £123.25 a week, or 80% of average weekly earnings if that's lower. It's payable from the first day of illness, for up to 28 weeks.
- Employers' liability insurance. At least £5 million of cover from an authorised insurer as soon as you become an employer. You can be fined £2,500 for every day you're not properly insured.
Costs you can't avoid but set yourself
- Cover for absence. Holidays alone mean 5.6 weeks a year with no cleaning unless you pay someone else. Add sickness, and the gap between someone leaving and their replacement starting.
- Equipment. Vacuum cleaners, mops and buckets, cloths, signs, and machines for hard floors if you have them. Electrical kit needs looking after.
- Chemicals and PPE. COSHH requires employers to plan, manage and monitor the use of hazardous substances. HSE's method starts with the product labels and safety data sheets, then asks who could be harmed and how, and whether a safer product would do.
- Training. On the chemicals and kit, on safe methods, and on what your specification expects.
- Supervision and checking. Someone has to check the work, plan rotas, order supplies and deal with problems. That's a manager's time, which has a cost even if no invoice arrives.
- Recruitment and admin. Advertising, interviews, right to work checks before the person starts, a written statement of terms on day one, and payroll. If you don't already employ anyone, you must register as an employer with HMRC before the first payday.
- Vetting where needed. A basic DBS check through the GOV.UK service costs £20 (England and Wales). Some settings need a higher level: schools, for example, must make sure cleaning staff are checked to the appropriate level (see school cleaning).
- Lone working. HSE names cleaners as an example of lone workers. If your cleaner works alone early or late, you must manage that risk before they start.
Worked example: what does one cleaner on 20 hours a week cost?
At the 2026 National Living Wage, one cleaner on 20 hours a week costs about £14,703 a year in pay, employer NI and pension. Paying for cover during their 5.6 weeks' holiday takes it to about £16,126, or about £15.46 per hour of cleaning, before any other costs. This is an illustration, not a quote.
This is an illustration with stated assumptions, built only from official rates. Your own figures will differ.
- One cleaner, aged 22 or over, working 4 hours a day, 5 days a week = 20 hours a week.
- Paid every week of the year: 52.14 weeks (365 ÷ 7), so 1,042.8 paid hours (20 × 52.14). That includes 5.6 weeks' paid holiday.
- Hours they actually clean: 20 × (52.14 − 5.6) = 20 × 46.54 = 930.8 hours.
- Holiday cover: 112 hours (5.6 × 20) paid to someone else at the same hourly rate, wages only.
- Employer NI at 15% above £5,000, worked out over the year, with no Employment Allowance. This is their only pay from you.
- Pension at 3% of pay above £6,240. Pay is above £10,000, so the cleaner is automatically enrolled.
- Not included: sick pay and sick cover, overtime, bank holiday arrangements, equipment, chemicals, insurance, recruitment, training or management time.
| Cost item | National Living Wage 2026 (£12.71) | Real Living Wage 2026-27 (£14.10) |
|---|---|---|
| Pay (1,042.8 hours × rate) | £13,253.99 | £14,703.48 |
| Employer NI (15% × (pay − £5,000)) | £1,238.10 | £1,455.52 |
| Employer pension (3% × (pay − £6,240)) | £210.42 | £253.90 |
| Cost of employing the cleaner | £14,702.51 | £16,412.90 |
| Per hour they actually clean (÷ 930.8) | £15.80 | £17.63 |
| Holiday cover (112 hours × rate) | £1,423.52 | £1,579.20 |
| Total with holiday cover | £16,126.03 | £17,992.10 |
| Per month (÷ 12) | £1,343.84 | £1,499.34 |
| Per hour of cleaning, all year (÷ 1,042.8) | £15.46 | £17.25 |
Sums are rounded to the penny. The real Living Wage is voluntary; the National Living Wage is the legal minimum for workers aged 21 and over. The cover hours have no NI or pension added, so the true cost of cover is higher.
Three things that change the answer
- Next April. If the whole year were at the April 2027 rate of £13.21, the same sums give pay of £13,775.39, NI of £1,316.31, pension of £226.06 and cover of £1,479.52: £16,797.28, or about £16.11 per hour of cleaning.
- The Employment Allowance. If your business is eligible and has allowance left, it could cover the £1,238.10 of NI. The National Living Wage total would then be £14,887.93 (£16,126.03 − £1,238.10), or about £14.28 an hour. Many small employers use the allowance up on other staff, so check before you count on it.
- Sickness. Our cleaner's average weekly pay is £254.20 (20 × £12.71). 80% of that is £203.36, which is more than £123.25, so SSP is £123.25 a week. A full week off with cover at the same rate costs £377.45 (£123.25 + £254.20) instead of £254.20: £123.25 extra for every week of sickness.
What hourly rate would a contractor need to beat?
Add up everything employing a cleaner costs you in a year, including kit, chemicals, insurance, sick cover and management time, and divide by the hours of cleaning you get. That's your in-house cost per hour. A contractor's hourly charge for the same hours and specification can be compared directly with it.
We don't quote contractor prices, because there's no official source for them. You don't need one: you need your own break-even figure, then real quotes to compare against it.
In-house cost per hour = (employment cost + holiday cover + sick cover + equipment + chemicals and PPE + insurance + recruitment and training + management time) ÷ hours of cleaning a year
- Start with the wage figure. On our example that's £16,126.03 a year for 1,042.8 hours, or £15.46 an hour at the National Living Wage.
- Add your other costs as yearly amounts. Use your own figures: kit spread over its life, chemicals and consumables, any extra insurance premium, recruitment, training and DBS checks.
- Price your own time. Hours a month a manager spends on rotas, checks, orders and problems × 12 × what that manager's hour costs you.
- Divide by the hours of cleaning. On our example, every £1,000 a year of extra cost adds about £0.96 an hour (£1,000 ÷ 1,042.8).
- Compare with quotes for the same hours and specification. Ask each contractor for the hours per week and the hourly charge behind their price, and what's included.
A contractor's hourly charge has to cover the same kind of costs, plus its own overheads and profit. Our office cleaning cost guide explains how contractors build that price, and the office cleaning cost calculator checks a quote against the wage floor for your hours. Comparing like with like only works if every contractor quotes to the same written specification.
Which gives you more control and flexibility?
In-house cleaning gives you direct day-to-day control of the person and the work. Contract cleaning gives you control through the specification and contract, and usually makes it easier to change hours, add specialist cleans or cover absences without employing more people.
Where in-house tends to suit
- You want the same person every day, who knows the building, the people and the routines.
- The cleaner works in the day and takes on small jobs as they come up, alongside the people in the building.
- You already have someone to manage them, such as a site or premises manager.
- Your needs are steady and don't call for specialist machines or skills.
Where a contractor tends to suit
- No one has time to manage cleaning, or no one knows enough about methods and chemicals.
- You need cover guaranteed, without keeping relief staff of your own.
- Your hours or sites change, and you want to scale up or down within the contract terms.
- You need specialist work such as carpet extraction, floor stripping and sealing, or high-level cleaning, which needs kit you wouldn't buy for occasional use.
Control under each route
With your own cleaner, you change how the work is done by talking to them, within their contract of employment. With a contractor, you don't direct the cleaners yourself. Your control comes from a clear specification, regular checks and the remedies in the contract. That's why a good specification and a regular checking routine matter more when you outsource.
Who covers holidays and sickness?
In-house, you do: you either pay someone else to clean while your cleaner is off, or the cleaning isn't done. A contractor usually provides cover as part of its price, but only if the contract says so.
Absence is where many in-house arrangements struggle. With one cleaner, every day off is a day with no cleaning unless you've planned for it.
| Absence | In-house: what happens | Contractor: what to check |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday (5.6 weeks a year) | You pay holiday pay and, if you want cleaning, a second person too. | Is holiday cover included and guaranteed? |
| Short sickness | SSP from day one, plus cover if you can find it at short notice. A fit note is needed after 7 days in a row. | How quickly will a cover cleaner arrive? Is there a charge? |
| Long-term sickness | SSP for up to 28 weeks, plus cover for the whole time. | Who manages it? Your service shouldn't change. |
| Resignation | Recruitment, checks and training again, with a gap in between. | How is a new cleaner briefed on your site? |
Your options for in-house cover
- Extra hours for other staff, if they want them and are trained.
- A relief cleaner on a casual basis, who is still your worker with holiday and pay rights.
- An agency worker. You pay the agency's charge, which includes its own costs.
- A contractor for cover only, if one will take on short, irregular work.
Whichever you choose, the Workplace Regulations still require the workplace to be kept sufficiently clean, and toilets and washrooms to be kept clean. Absence doesn't pause that duty.
Does TUPE apply if you outsource cleaning, or bring it back in-house?
It can, in both directions. GOV.UK lists three service provision changes: in-house work given to a contractor, a contract moving to a new contractor, and a contract ending with the work brought back in-house. Cleaners who mainly do the transferring work usually move with it, on their existing terms.
Outsourcing: your cleaner moves to the contractor
GOV.UK's own example is a cleaner whose employer decides to use an outside cleaning company instead: they're likely to be protected under TUPE. In practice:
- Their job, terms and conditions and continuous employment usually move to the contractor.
- You must give the contractor information about them (including main employment details and any disciplinary action, grievances or legal action in the last 2 years) at least 4 weeks before the transfer.
- You must inform and consult them, or their representatives, about the transfer. For transfers from 1 July 2024, you can do this directly with staff if you have fewer than 50 employees or are transferring fewer than 10.
- You can't normally change their terms before the transfer to suit the contractor, even if they agree.
- A cleaner can object to transferring. That's treated much like resigning.
Expect contractors to ask about your cleaner's pay, hours and terms when they quote, because those costs come with the contract.
Bringing cleaning in-house: you become the employer
This catches buyers out. If you end a cleaning contract and do the work yourself, the contractor's cleaners who work on your site may transfer to you. Under TUPE, the new employer takes over:
- all their existing terms and conditions, including pay, hours and holiday entitlement;
- their period of continuous employment;
- any collective agreements; and
- liability for some past failures of the old employer, such as discrimination claims.
You can't change their terms because of the transfer itself. Changes need an economic, technical or organisational reason and, usually, their agreement. So if you bring cleaning in-house to save money, the staff you take on may cost what they cost now. Ask the outgoing contractor for the employee information early, and get advice from ACAS or a qualified adviser before you decide.
ACAS says both the old and new employer must follow the TUPE regulations. TUPE doesn't usually apply to a single event or short-term task. For changing from one contractor to another, see switching cleaning contractor.
Can you mix in-house and contract cleaning?
Yes. A common split is an in-house cleaner or caretaker for daily cleaning and day-time jobs, with contractors for periodic and specialist work. Write down who does what, so tasks don't fall between the two.
You don't have to choose one route for everything. Typical splits include:
- In-house daily cleaning, contracted periodic work: carpets, hard floor maintenance, windows and high-level cleaning bought in as needed.
- A contractor for the evening clean, your own staff in the day: someone on site to deal with spills, top up washrooms and keep kitchens tidy.
- Specialist trades kept separate: some work, such as kitchen extract cleaning, is a specialist job whatever route you choose for routine cleaning.
- A single list of every area and task, showing who does each and how often.
- Who supplies consumables, and who orders them.
- Who deals with spills, washroom problems and complaints during the day.
- One COSHH approach, so in-house and contract staff aren't using incompatible chemicals in the same cupboard.
- Who holds keys and alarm codes, and who locks up.
HSE's guidance on the Workplace Regulations says responsibility for cleaning toilets and washrooms should be clearly established. That matters most when more than one party cleans.
How do you decide between in-house and contract cleaning?
Work out your full in-house cost per hour, get quotes for the same hours and specification, then weigh the non-price factors: who will manage it, how absence is covered, how much your needs change, and whether TUPE applies to anyone now.
- Write down what you need cleaned, how often and when. Without that, neither option can be costed.
- Estimate the hours, or ask a contractor to survey and tell you what they'd plan.
- Cost the in-house option fully using the break-even formula above, with your own figures for kit, insurance, cover and management time.
- Get contractor quotes to the same specification, showing hours and hourly charge. Our guide to comparing cleaning quotes explains how to line them up.
- Check who might transfer. Do you employ a cleaner now? Does your current contractor have staff who mainly work on your site? Either way, TUPE may apply.
- Weigh control against cover. Ask honestly who will manage a cleaner, and what happens the first week they're off sick.
- Decide, then review. Wage rates change every April, and your building's use changes too. Look at the decision again when they do.
Related guides
In-house vs contract cleaning: frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to employ a cleaner or use a contractor?
It depends on your hours, your own costs and the quotes you get, so there's no general answer. Work out your full in-house cost per hour, including holiday cover, NI, pension, kit, insurance and management time, and compare it with contractor quotes for the same hours and specification.
How much does it cost to employ a cleaner for 20 hours a week?
On our worked example at the 2026 National Living Wage of £12.71, pay, employer NI and pension come to £14,702.51 a year. Paying someone to cover 5.6 weeks' holiday takes it to £16,126.03, before sick cover, kit, chemicals, insurance or management time. It's an illustration with stated assumptions, not a quote.
Do I have to put a part-time cleaner in a pension?
You must automatically enrol workers aged between 22 and State Pension age who earn at least £10,000 a year, and contribute at least 3% of qualifying earnings. A cleaner who earns less can usually still ask to join, and you can't refuse.
Can I use the Employment Allowance for a cleaner?
If your business is eligible, the allowance (up to £10,500 in 2026/27) reduces your employer NI bill, including on a cleaner. It's one allowance for the whole business, so check whether you've already used it on other staff.
Do I need insurance to employ a cleaner?
Yes, in most cases. GOV.UK says you must get employers' liability insurance of at least £5 million as soon as you become an employer, and you can be fined £2,500 for every day you aren't properly insured. There are narrow exceptions, such as employing only a family member.
Will my cleaner transfer to the contractor if I outsource?
Probably, if they mainly do the cleaning that's being outsourced. GOV.UK's own example says a cleaner whose employer switches to an outside cleaning company is likely to be protected under TUPE, so their job and terms usually move to the contractor.
If I bring cleaning back in-house, do I take on the contractor's cleaners?
You may. Bringing a contracted service back in-house is a service provision change under TUPE, so cleaners who mainly work on your site may transfer to you with their existing terms and length of service.
Who covers holidays if I employ my own cleaner?
You do. Most workers get 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, and the cleaning won't happen during that time unless you pay someone else, such as a relief cleaner, an agency worker or another member of staff.
Do in-house cleaners need a DBS check?
Not in every workplace. Some settings, such as schools, must make sure cleaning staff are checked to the right level. A basic DBS check through the GOV.UK service costs £20 for people working in England and Wales.
Do I need a COSHH assessment if my own staff clean?
Yes, if they use substances hazardous to health. COSHH requires employers to plan, manage and monitor their use, and HSE's method starts with the product labels and safety data sheets.
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources on 13 November 2026:
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 (GOV.UK)
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates (GOV.UK)
- Workplace pensions: joining a workplace pension (GOV.UK)
- Employment Allowance: check if you're eligible (GOV.UK)
- Employers' liability insurance (GOV.UK)
- Business transfers, takeovers and TUPE (GOV.UK)
- How to carry out a COSHH risk assessment (HSE)