In 2001, the UK contract cleaning market was worth an estimated £4.1bn, a growth of 28.5 percent on the 1997 figure.

Cleaning activities covered by this report correspond to those defined as industrial cleaning in the UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), in which there are two main categories — traditional cleaning (including the cleaning of commercial, industrial and administrative buildings, and window cleaning) and specialist cleaning (for example, of computer rooms, hospital operating theatres, boilers, chimneys, ventilation, and transport). Topics that are not analysed include laundering, carpet cleaning and drapery cleaning.

As well as expanding to include services for an increasingly complex marketplace, contract cleaning is now often linked with other areas, such as security, porterage, reception, maintenance, landscaping and other building support services. In recent years, these services have been outsourced instead of forming part of an in-house operation.

In 2001, there were 8,220 VAT-registered enterprises engaged in the UK cleaning industry. It is a labour intensive industry in which 295,000 people were estimated to be employed in 2001.

Employment legislation and regulations are particularly relevant to the cleaning industry in view of its labour intensive work. Specific related legislation includes the Employment Bill 2001, Fairness at Work, Working Time Regulations, and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE).

This report gives profiles of major players involved in the UK contract cleaning market, including those of Rentokil Initial PLC, ISS International Service System A/S (of Denmark), OCS Group Ltd, MITIE Group PLC, Pall Mall Holdings (now owned by John Mowlem), LI Group, and Sodexho (of France).

In addition, the report covers the current issues of health and safety (including biohazards for customers and cleaners), emergency clean-up (e.g. flood damage), Best Practice, labour issues (high staff turnover, poor pay, lack of career path, etc.), education and training (initiatives to improve the quality and career prospects of cleaning company employees), standards (the new EN 1345:2001 Cleaning Services Standard), and employment legislation (the burden of legislation for cleaning companies).

The UK contract cleaning market is forecast to grow between 2002 and 2006.