A DIFFERENT KIND OF
our Blog
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Clean for Good is a business with a social purpose. We are an award-winning Living Wage Employer cleaning company, delivering ethical cleaning for London.
You can read about our work in our regular Blog.
Poems & Portraits
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Clean for Good ran the UK’s first national Poetry Competition celebrating key workers called Poetry for Good, & the website presents the Top 100 winning poems. You can also still see our unique Portrait Exhibition celebrating the cleaners of London - ‘Face to Face with the cleaners of London’.
ethical sourcing
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Clean for Good has published a Report ‘From Outsourcing to Ethical Sourcing’ highlighting how employers can outsource more ethically, ensuring workers are protected and avoiding reputational risks.
OUR tweets
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cleaning services for london
Clean for Good is an award-winning professional cleaning company for all work spaces, based in London. Our first aim is to give you a great experience with your cleaning service and to contribute to making your workplace ‘Covid-19 Secure’. We get it right first time because we prepare our free quotes by visiting and listening to your needs and designing a personalised cleaning schedule to suit. We pride ourselves on our attention to detail. Our account manager will work directly with you and visit regularly to ensure your standards and ours are being met.
Clean for Good is your go-to for all cleaning needs. We do:
Contract cleaning We’ll come regularly, same cleaner, same time, same high quality service. We clean offices, shops, community centres, churches - any workspace.
Pre/post event cleaning We will get your space looking its absolute best for your special guests and visitors.
Deep Cleaning This is the most thorough cleaning service we offer. Great for a first-time customer or after a decluttering spree.
If you need something doing, just ask us. We are here to support the good work of your organisation and understand how to manage the risks of Covid-19 in the workplace.
All of our cleaners are trained, uniformed, insured, friendly and most of all treated well! As a fully accredited Living Wage Employer, all of our cleaners are paid the London Living Wage and have great working conditions.
We ensure our supply-chain is as ethical as possible, including use of the UK’s best eco-friendly chemicals. We work to very high environmental standards.
By working with us, you are changing cleaners lives and changing the cleaning sector – for good.
Our customer satisfaction is very high. Recent comments from customers (2023):
”Excellent service and Ethics”
“A great and very attentive service Clean for Good have provided, addressing any concerns and issues immediately”
“The team have been nothing short of perfect. We have a busy, changing office with increasing demands and the team have been communicative, fantastic at their jobs, and so lovely whenever I've met them. Thanks so much for all you do”
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About Us
A different kind of
cleaning company
The cleaning sector is renowned for low wages and poor working conditions. Clean for Good is a response to this - we are a business with a social purpose.
The company was founded in the Parish of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, in the City of London. When the church looked into the cleaning happening in their parish, they found a surprising number of low-paid cleaners, working in less-than fair circumstances.
Every day the City of London relies upon a small army of low-income workers to keep the City ticking over – cleaners, security guards, couriers and bar workers to name a few. Working anti-social hours, thousands are coming to work as the day-time City workers leave their desks. Some are treated well, but some less so – with low wages, poor working conditions and little scope for advancement. They have been described as the City’s ‘hidden workers’.
We also regularly come across cleaners who have been employed on less than the Minimum Wage or have not been paid their full wages.
St Andrew’s decided to do something practical. Why not set up a cleaning company to provide work for cleaners with decent working conditions and paying the London Living Wage?
So that is what we do. Clean for Good enables cleaners to thrive, not just survive. Every cleaner is viewed and treated as a person with skills and potential. We want to promote the idea that cleaning is a respected and dignified career. We care about our employees and want to enable them with the skills and confidence to progress not only within our company, but in their life.
At Clean for Good we aim to provide hope for those who are tired, overworked, and underpaid. We want cleaners to have a life as well as a livelihood.
That is why we:
are a fully accredited Living Wage Employer
directly employ our cleaners on decent terms and conditions (no zero-hours contracts)
invest in training, management and development
operate to high eco-cleaning standards - good for the planet, good for our workers
have built an ethical supply chain
We have been nationally recognised by the Living Wage Foundation for our leadership in setting new standards and have won numerous awards.
We have also celebrated the work of our cleaning team with our Portrait Exhibition and ran Poetry for Good, a national poetry competition!
Our ethical approach
Clean for Good has developed an ethical approach to cleaning which is integrated into every aspect of our business. As a business with a social purpose, ‘doing the right thing’ is not just a marketing slogan, it is who we are. You can read our Ethical Purchasing Policy for more information - this also includes our voluntary Modern Slavery Statement.
Living Wage Employer
Clean for Good is a fully accredited Living Wage Employer, licensed by the independent Living Wage Foundation. This means that we always pay all of our staff the London Living Wage or more and commit to high employment standards. Very few cleaning companies in the UK do this (yet!); we work for the day when every cleaner in the UK earns a Living Wage or more.
Eco-responsible cleaning
All of our regular cleaning is delivered using Delphis Eco cleaning products which have the independently certified ‘EU Ecolabel’ on them. These are effective cleaning products, and we believe that they are the best and most environment-friendly cleaning products in the UK. They are plant-based, biodegradable, animal-friendly, non-toxic and entirely made in the UK. And all included as standard in our price.
Fair Tax Mark
As a company we are committed to transparency and fairness. We are delighted to be independently accredited with the Fair Tax Mark for 2022-23 - the first cleaning company in the UK to achieve this. It means that we take responsibility for paying the right amount of Corporation Tax - recognising that taxes contribute to funding vital public goods and services in the UK. A more detailed Statement of our tax policy is here. The Fair Tax Foundation is a not-for-profit social enterprise.
Ethical workwear
Clean for Good buys its uniforms from Ethical Workwear, a UK company which makes work clothes with a high standard of supply chain transparency on social and environmental standards.
The Phone Coop
Clean for Good’s mobile phone contracts are with The Phone Coop, which is the UK’s only Telecoms Co-operative. The business is owned and controlled by its members.
Certified Social Enterprise
Clean for Good is a certified social enterprise and a member of the national trade body, Social Enterprise UK. We are part of a national movement of enterprises tackling a range of social and environmental issues through the market place.
what is the
living wage?
The Living Wage is an independently calculated hourly wage which reflects the cost of living in London
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The real Living Wage is currently £13.15 per hour in London and is updated each autumn. It is a voluntary rate which employers can choose to pay. It gives workers a fair and decent rate of pay. Paying it shows the core values of the business.
The Living Wage is overseen by the Living Wage Foundation (www.livingwage.org.uk) and is backed by the Mayor of London, Citizens UK and over 1000 employers in London who have chosen to become ‘Living Wage Employers’, including KPMG, Nationwide and Burberry. Employers are joining up every month.
The Living Wage is significantly higher than the Government’s statutory Minimum Wage, which was rebadged as the ‘national living wage’ in April 2016. The Government’s current statutory minimum is £11.44 per hour for those who are 23 or over.
Why the Living Wage is good for business
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There is growing evidence from a number of independent studies that employers who pay the extra cost of a Living Wage also see a range of business benefits – including:
Lower staff turnover
Higher team morale
Higher productivity
Reputational benefits
Paying the Living Wage says something about a business’s core values and how it regards its employees, but it also has practical benefits too.
A recent report by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) highlighted the benefits of the Living Wage to Facilities Management companies, including cleaning services.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has also fully endorsed the Living Wage:
“Paying the London Living Wage is not just the right and moral thing to do, it makes good business sense too. As many employers already accredited know, the benefits are clear - including increased productivity and reduced staff turnover. The London Living Wage is a fantastic campaign and I will be working to encourage more businesses across our great city to get involved." (2016)
our founding story,
and where we are going
Clean for Good’s story began in the Parish of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe – a Church in the City of London in 2014. Wanting to understand more about who worked in their parish, they asked the Centre for Theology & Community to undertake some grassroots research. They found a surprising number of low-paid workers, often working in poor conditions.
Every day the City of London relies upon a small army of low-income workers to keep the City ticking over – cleaners, security guards, couriers and bar workers to name a few. Working anti-social hours, thousands are coming to work as the day-time City workers leave their desks. Some are treated well, but some less so – with low wages, poor working conditions and little scope for advancement. They have been described as the City’s ‘hidden workers’. The treatment of local cleaners stood out.
St Andrew’s decided to do something practical. Why not set up a cleaning company to provide work for cleaners – paying the London Living Wage and providing decent working conditions?
The new business would benefit low-income residents of the City and its surrounding communities
Why should cleaning be a sector where workers just survive? Why not a cleaning business whose workers thrive?
The parish’s Social Responsibility Liaison Miriam Goodacre led the project, secured a grant from the Corporation of London for a feasibility study and in 2014 won a Dragon’s Den competition, organised by the Church Mission Society (CMS). This gave her access to training and support in developing the business idea. In fact, CMS were so interested in the idea they became a founder investor. And Miriam has been recognised for her work (read about her award here).
Early in 2015, the Parish asked the Centre for Theology & Community to work as a partner in developing the business plan and launching the business. In 2016 the Centre took on full project management of developing and launching the business. The Centre is a founder investor.
Clean for Good launched in early 2017.
Meet our team
our founder investors
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The company was established by a small group of investors, led by local churches and Christian charities. Our social purpose is ‘locked in’ because these charitable investors have control of the company, and always will.
The Parish of St Andrew by the Wardrobe, City of London
Centre for Theology & Community
Church Mission Society (CMS)
Any profits will be reinvested in the business or distributed in equal measure back to our cleaners and shareholders. Shareholders who are mainly charities.
We have also benefited from the advice and support of numerous organisations and individuals as well as development grants from the Corporation of London and the Parish of St Sepulchres, City of London.
our management team
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Our company is run by a small team of managers from an office in east London.
Between us we have many years experience of cleaning, business and management.
Together, we are building something new which is good for customers, good for cleaners and good for London.
Our lovely customers
We work with many businesses, public bodies, charities and churches. We clean offices, historic buildings and community centres. These are just some of our customers. Each one is making a positive difference to London’s cleaners by working with us. If you’d like to join in, just get in touch!
Interested?
Lets talk about it
Clean for Good would love to work with you. If you would a free quotation or would like to discuss
how we might be able to help you please get in touch
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If you are interested in working with us, please see our available positions below