Most self-employed cleaners set their price by asking what the person down the road charges. That is how an entire local market ends up underpaid. This guide works from costs upwards, using the 2026 wage figures.
Start with the legal floor
From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over — up 4.1%. That is the minimum an employer must pay an employee for every hour worked.
You are not an employee, which means nobody guarantees you that figure. If you charge £13 an hour, you will earn considerably less than the legal minimum once your costs come out.
The arithmetic
Take a cleaner charging £18 an hour, working 25 charged hours a week, 46 weeks a year.
Gross: 25 × £18 × 46 = £20,700
Now deduct the real costs of a year's work:
| Cost | Typical annual |
|---|---|
| Materials and equipment | £600 |
| Public liability insurance | £120 |
| Vehicle running costs | £2,400 |
| Phone, accountancy, admin | £600 |
| Total | £3,720 |
Net before tax: £16,980.
Now the hours nobody pays for: travel between jobs, quoting, invoicing, buying supplies, chasing payment. Realistically 8–10 hours a week on top of the 25 charged. That is 33–35 actual working hours.
£16,980 ÷ (34 × 46) = roughly £10.85 an hour actually worked — below the National Living Wage. And that is before six weeks of unpaid holiday and any sick days.
What you need to charge
Run the same sum in reverse. To clear the equivalent of £12.71 an hour across every hour actually worked, including unpaid ones, plus holiday, a self-employed cleaner in Essex needs to charge roughly £16 to £22 an hour.
Rates published on Southend Cleaners listings sit in that band: £17–£19 for regular domestic work, £19–£28 for deep cleans and after-builders work.
Hourly or fixed price?
Hourly for regular domestic cleaning. The scope varies week to week and both sides stay fair.
Fixed price for defined one-offs — end of tenancy, after-builders, oven cleaning — where you can see the property and estimate the hours. Fixed pricing rewards you for getting faster; hourly punishes it.
Rules for fixed quotes:
- Never quote without seeing the property or clear photographs.
- Estimate the hours honestly, then add 20% for what you cannot see.
- Put the scope in writing, including what is excluded.
- State what happens if the property is in worse condition than described.
Discounts that make sense — and ones that do not
Sensible: a slightly lower hourly rate for weekly regular work. Predictable income has real value, and a familiar property takes less time.
Not sensible: discounting a one-off deep clean to win it. One-offs carry the highest risk and never repeat. This is where you should charge most.
Raising your prices
Every cleaner dreads this and almost nobody loses the customer they feared losing.
- Give at least four weeks' notice, in writing.
- Raise by a specific amount, not a percentage — "£18 to £19 an hour from 1 May".
- Give a reason once, briefly, and do not apologise.
- Review annually, in April, when the wage rates change.
If a customer leaves over a £1 increase, that hour is easily refilled at the new rate — and the customer was always going to leave over something.
Minimum bookings
Set a two or three hour minimum. A single billed hour twenty minutes away loses money once travel is counted. This is not greed; it is the difference between a viable round and a losing one.
Where the customers see this
Customers increasingly compare quotes before booking, and being invisible costs more than being expensive. If you have no website, a free listing puts your rates, services and coverage on a page that shows up in local search.
Related: what cleaners in Southend actually charge and the UK cleaning industry round-up.