The UK cleaning company market, by the numbers
Cleaning sits inside the trade group with one of the highest opening rates in the country, and one of the highest closing rates too. That combination tells you almost everything about how to sell to it.
Watch: Easy to start
Cleaning is one of the easiest businesses in Britain to start. That single fact explains almost everything about the market, including the parts that catch suppliers out.
Where cleaning sits in the data
There is no single "cleaning" line in the national statistics. The trade sits inside business administration and support services, which in 2024 had a birth rate of 14.4% and a death rate of 13.5%.
Read those two together. The group is adding firms, but only just. For every hundred businesses in it, about fourteen were new and about fourteen disappeared. That is not growth in any meaningful sense. It is churn.
The codes themselves:
- 81210 general cleaning of buildings, the main commercial code
- 81220 other building and industrial cleaning, including specialist and industrial work
- 81299 other cleaning services
- 97000 households employing domestic personnel, used by some domestic-only cleaners
If you sell to commercial cleaners, 81210 and 81220 are where you start. Mixing in 97000 fills your list with sole traders cleaning houses.
Why low barriers change everything
A cleaning business can begin with a van, a phone and some insurance. No qualifications gate it, no capital requirement, no premises.
That produces a predictable pattern:
- Lots of new firms, constantly. There is always someone starting.
- Lots of firms leaving, constantly. Many were never going to reach a second year.
- A small number that get properly big, win contracts, hire, and stay.
Those three groups need completely different things from a supplier, and treating them as one market is the usual mistake.
High churn trade. Work from a list that is checked.
Tell us the kind of company you sell to. We find them on the public record, check the website and the email, and hand you the list. It takes about two minutes instead of an afternoon.
What this means for your list
This is the practical part, and it is a warning.
In a trade churning at roughly 13 to 14% a year, a list of cleaning companies is measurably wrong within months. Build one in January and by the summer a meaningful slice of it has stopped trading, and a batch of firms that would have been your best prospects have appeared since.
Two consequences:
- Never buy this list once. A standing search that keeps delivering new matches is worth far more than a bigger one-off file.
- Check before you contact. Emailing a company that dissolved four months ago is not just wasted effort, it damages your sending reputation. Why that matters is in where UK companies are closing fastest.
Selling to cleaning firms
Three things worth knowing.
Most are very small. The owner answers the phone, does the quoting and often still cleans. Long procurement cycles do not exist. Decisions are fast, and they are made by one person.
The new ones buy. A cleaner who has just incorporated needs insurance, invoicing, scheduling, supplies, a website and a way of finding customers. A ten-year-old firm has all of that. Company age is public, and it is the single most useful filter here.
The big ones are a different sale entirely. Once a cleaning company holds contracts and employs teams, it has procurement, compliance obligations and a finance function. That is a longer sale with a much larger contract at the end, and there are far fewer of them.
Sizing your own patch
National rates describe a country you probably do not sell to. If you cover two counties, what you want is the count of cleaning firms in those postcodes, split by how long they have traded.
That is a fact you can establish today from the public record, rather than a projection. The method is the same one in how to find UK companies by postcode.
Where these figures come from
Birth and death rates are from ONS *Business demography, UK: 2024*, published 20 November 2025, for the business administration and support services group that cleaning sits within. SIC codes are from the ONS SIC 2007 classification.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
A list that keeps up with the churn
Leadistry reads the live UK public record and re-checks every company monthly, so firms that have gone stop appearing and new ones arrive on their own. Filter 81210 and 81220 to your postcodes and your preferred company age, and every lead comes with a working website and a verified business email.
Counting is free. Start free with 25 leads.
Common questions
What SIC code is a cleaning company?
Most sit under 81210 general cleaning of buildings, 81220 other building and industrial cleaning, or 81299 other cleaning services. Domestic-only cleaners often use 97000.
Is the UK cleaning industry growing?
Its parent trade group, business administration and support services, opened 14.4% and closed 13.5% of its businesses in 2024. So it is adding firms, but only slightly faster than it loses them. It churns rather than steadily grows.
Why do so many cleaning companies close?
Because the barrier to entry is very low. A cleaning business can start with a van and a phone, which produces both a high opening rate and a high closing rate. Easy to start is not the same as easy to stay in.