Ask what a council cleaning contract is worth and most people guess wrong in both directions. They imagine either pocket money or the kind of mega deal only nationals can service. The live data says otherwise: the median facilities award over the last twelve months is £160,000, the range that matters for SMEs runs from £50,000 to about £2 million, and the market moved £3.91 billion through 277 awarded contracts in a year.
This article puts real numbers on cleaning contract values, then does the thing most guides dodge: shows you how to price one without winning yourself into a loss.
What is the average value of a council cleaning contract?
Averages mislead in procurement because a handful of huge total FM deals drag the mean upward. The honest picture from the AtlasRevenue facilities desk, July 2026:
| Contract type | Typical total value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single primary school | £50,000 to £150,000 | Often 2 to 3 year terms |
| Secondary school or small MAT | £300,000 to £700,000 | Alcester Grammar's live tender is £633,000 |
| Council corporate estate, single service | £100,000 to £2 million | Offices, libraries, depots |
| NHS or large trust cleaning | £1 million to £20 million plus | NHS Property Services: £62.2m awarded in 12 months |
| Total FM bundles | £5 million to £200 million plus | Luton Council's arrangements total £214.4m awarded |
The median award across the whole desk is £160,000. Remember these are usually multi year totals: a £160,000 award on a three year term is roughly £53,000 a year of revenue. Read every notice's contract period before you get excited or dismissive; the method is in how to find contract end dates.
How is a cleaning tender priced?
Public cleaning bids are almost always priced as an annual or monthly sum built from the bottom up. The structure evaluators expect to see, and check:
- Labour. Hours per site per week, multiplied by rates. This is 70 to 85 percent of a cleaning price. Rates must respect the buyer's stated wage expectations; many councils require the Real Living Wage and say so in the pack.
- TUPE inheritance. If staff transfer, their actual hours and rates come with them. The tender pack's staff information tells you what you inherit; cost that, not your fantasy staffing model. Details in our TUPE guide.
- Supervision and management. A working supervisor on smaller sites, dedicated management above roughly £250,000 a year. Bids that show no management cost read as either dishonest or naive.
- Materials, equipment, consumables. Typically 8 to 15 percent. Say what machinery you are bringing; buyers notice investment.
- Overheads and margin. Sector operating margins on public cleaning work are thin, commonly 3 to 8 percent. Anyone promising you double digit margins on competitive council cleaning has not bid one.
Why the lowest price loses more than it wins
Most cleaning evaluations weight quality at 50 to 70 percent, price at 30 to 50, and within price the scoring is usually relative: lowest compliant bid gets full marks, others get proportionally fewer. That maths creates a trap. Cutting £20,000 off a £200,000 price might gain you three or four price points while the missing hours cost you ten quality points on staffing credibility.
Then there is the abnormally low tender rule: buyers can and do challenge prices that look undeliverable, and under the Procurement Act they can exclude bids whose pricing cannot be explained. Evaluators have seen the incumbent's real costs. If your price implies cleaning the same buildings with two thirds of the hours, they do not think you are efficient. They think you have not read the specification.
The social value weighting compounds this. At a mandatory 10 percent, credible local hiring and apprenticeship commitments swing more marks than aggressive price cutting, and they cost less. An SME's honest local commitments outscore a national's template every time; the how is in social value for SMEs.
What does it cost to bid?
Sizing the prize means sizing the effort too. A first cleaning bid for a school or single service council lot realistically takes 30 to 60 hours: reading the pack, site visit, pricing model, quality answers, policies gathered. At consultancy rates that is £2,000 to £5,000 of effort; done in house it is evenings for a fortnight. Against a £480,000 contract lifetime, obviously worth it. Against a £40,000 single year deal with eight bidders, run the arithmetic before you start. Our bid or no-bid framework turns that gut feel into a checklist.
The second bid costs half as much as the first, and the fifth costs a quarter, because the library builds. Which is the strongest argument for picking a niche, schools, say, and bidding it repeatedly rather than scattering across every notice on the facilities desk.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum contract size worth bidding for?
Arithmetic, not pride: if a bid costs you 40 hours, the contract's lifetime gross margin should cover that several times over. In practice most firms set the floor around £50,000 total value, lower only if the buyer is strategic or the bid is nearly identical to one already written.
Do councils publish cleaning contract budgets in advance?
Frequently yes. Tender notices often state an estimated value or range, and award notices always publish what was actually awarded. Historic award values for the same buyer are the best budget predictor of all, and they are free on Contracts Finder.
What margin should I price on a council cleaning contract?
Sector reality is 3 to 8 percent operating margin on competitive public cleaning work. Price for the bottom of that range only if the contract brings strategic value, references, density, TUPE scale. Below 3 percent you are buying work, and buyers increasingly challenge prices that imply it.
Why did a cheaper bid lose to a more expensive one?
Because quality usually outweighs price. A bid 10 percent dearer that scores strongly on staffing, monitoring and social value beats a cheap bid with thin answers under almost any 60/40 quality price split. Evaluators also discount prices they do not believe.
Where can I see real awarded cleaning contract values?
Award notices on Contracts Finder publish the awarded value and supplier for every regulated contract. The AtlasRevenue facilities desk aggregates them continuously: £3.91 billion across 277 awards in the last twelve months, median £160,000, top buyers named.
Sources and references
- AtlasRevenue facilities desk, award values, medians, and buyer totals cited throughout, July 2026
- Contracts Finder, published award values including the live school tenders referenced
- Procurement Act 2023 guidance, abnormally low tender provisions
- Real Living Wage, the wage floor many councils require in cleaning contracts
- How to Win Council Cleaning Contracts, the full market guide
- UK Government Contracts: The Complete Supplier Guide 2026, our hub guide
Every value in this article came from published award data. AtlasRevenue reads it continuously across 28 sector desks so you can price against reality, not guesswork. Run a free scan and see what your market actually pays.
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