In-house office cleaner vs a cleaning contractor: which is better value?

Updated 6 November 2026 · By the Commercial Office Cleaners team

Short answer: Employing your own office cleaner can look cheaper per hour, but once you add employer National Insurance, holiday pay, pension contributions, sickness and holiday cover, supplies, equipment, training and management time, the gap usually narrows or disappears. A contractor suits most small and medium offices because cover, supervision and COSHH are handled for you; in-house can work well for larger sites wanting a dedicated daytime cleaner.

The real cost of an in-house cleaner

The hourly wage is only part of the cost. Since April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour, and many employers choose to pay the voluntary Real Living Wage, which rises to £14.10 across the UK and £15.45 in London from the 2026-27 rates. On top of wages you pay statutory holiday entitlement, employer National Insurance above the threshold, workplace pension contributions, and the cost of cover when your cleaner is off.

Cost item	In-house cleaner	Cleaning contractor
Hourly wage	Paid by you	Built into the hourly rate
Holiday pay and sick pay	Paid by you	Contractor's responsibility
Holiday and sickness cover	You must find it or go without	Relief cleaners provided
Employer NI and pension	Paid by you	Contractor's responsibility
Chemicals, equipment and vacuums	Bought and maintained by you	Usually included
COSHH assessments and training	Your responsibility	Contractor's responsibility
Supervision and quality checks	Your management time	Contractor's supervisors
Recruitment and right-to-work checks	Your responsibility	Contractor's responsibility

Where in-house works well

Directly employing a cleaner gives you full control over who is on site, when they work and what they do, and some businesses value having a familiar person who knows the team. The trade-off is that you carry all of the employment risk and administration, and if your cleaner leaves or is off long term, the cleaning stops until you find a replacement.

Larger offices that need a dedicated cleaner on site all day
Businesses that want the cleaner to double as a facilities assistant
Sites with security restrictions that limit outside staff
Organisations with an existing facilities team to manage and cover the role

Where a contractor is usually better

Small and medium offices needing a few hours a day or a few visits a week
Businesses with no one who has time to manage a cleaner
Offices that need guaranteed cover when the regular cleaner is away
Sites that also want periodic work such as deep cleans and carpet cleaning
Businesses wanting a fixed monthly cost that is easy to budget

Switching between the two and TUPE

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 can apply when cleaning moves from in-house to a contractor, from one contractor to another, or back in-house. If an organised group of employees, which can be a single cleaner, is mainly assigned to your cleaning, they may transfer automatically on their existing terms. Take advice and raise it early with any new provider, because it affects start dates and pricing.

How to decide

Work out the full annual cost of employing a cleaner for the hours you need, including cover for around five to six weeks of statutory holiday plus likely sickness, products, equipment and your own management time. Then ask two or three contractors to quote on the same specification. For most offices of up to a few dozen staff, the contractor price for a guaranteed, supervised service is close to or below the true in-house cost.

A worked example

Take an office that needs two hours of cleaning a day, five days a week, which is about 520 hours a year. The figures below are illustrative only and will vary with your wage rate, pension scheme, National Insurance position and location.

Item	In-house, illustrative	Contractor, illustrative
Direct hours worked	520 hours at your chosen wage	520 hours at the contract rate
Paid holiday	Around 5.6 weeks of paid leave on top	Included
Cover for holiday and sickness	Agency or temporary cover, often at a premium	Included
Products, equipment and vacuum replacement	Several hundred pounds a year	Usually included
Supervision and admin	Your manager's time each week	Included
Typical outcome	Low headline rate, higher true cost	Higher headline rate, fewer hidden costs

When all of these are counted, a contractor rate of £18 to £30 per hour outside central London often compares closely with the full cost of a directly employed cleaner, particularly once cover and management time are valued.

Hybrid options

Some offices combine both approaches. A part-time in-house assistant may handle daytime tasks such as restocking, washing up and dealing with spills, while a contractor carries out the main early-morning or evening clean, provides cover and handles periodic work such as deep cleans and carpet cleaning. This can give a visible presence during the day without the risk of the whole cleaning service depending on one person.

If you choose a hybrid model, write down clearly which tasks belong to whom, so that nothing is duplicated or missed and both parties know who to speak to when something goes wrong.