The Voice of Cleaning
Established in 1982, the British Cleaning Council (BCC) is the authoritative, collective voice of UK’s cleaning, hygiene and waste management industries.
The Council’s membership is made up of 21 trade and membership associations which all represent different industry sub-sectors. From contract cleaning to waste management, pest control to housekeeping, training providers to machine manufacturers, chemical suppliers to wheelie-bin washers – the BCC coordinates, campaigns and supports the affairs of the UK’s entire commercial cleaning ecosystem.
Key priorities for the BCC and its membership include raising professional standards, employee health and wellbeing, career development and training, improved quality control and better procurement practices. They are also committed to promoting higher levels of cleaning and hygiene across all environments – commercial, domestic and public.
Co-Producer of The Cleaning Show
Along with Quartz Business Media, the British Cleaning Council also manage the world-renowned Cleaning Show. This flagship industry expo, which alternates annually between the ExCel Centre in London and Manchester, is a showcase for the latest developments and innovations in UK cleaning as well as providing a forum to discuss and debate major issues which impact on the whole sector.
Proceeds from The Cleaning Show are reinvested by the BCC back into the cleaning industry in the form of research, grants, consultation services, campaigns and generating positive publicity for the sector. More information on The Cleaning Show can be found here.
Industry Research
The BCC also conducts research into the cleaning, waste management, landscaping and FM sectors.
Our latest research report cemented the sector’s position as one of the UK’s top ten industries.
Figures show that the cleaning, hygiene and waste industry contributes nearly £59bn to the UK economy, with turnover soaring in a sector with tens of thousands of businesses.
The latest employment data available shows that there are 1.47 million workers in the sector, approximately five per centre of the UK workforce and firmly in the top ten UK industries for employment.
Other more recent figures show the varying effect the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns have had on some parts of the industry, with demand soaring in some areas while others saw demand shrink.
The report also testifies to the change in public attitudes which has put cleaning and hygiene at the top of the agenda and brought widespread recognition for the vital work of the sector’s previously invisible workforce.
For a free copy of our report email info@britishcleaningcouncil.org
We Clean, We Care
Our campaign for wider recognition for the vital work that cleaning and hygiene staff do is called We Clean, We Care.
The We Clean, We Care slogan was chosen to show the pride and professionalism that the sector’s highly-trained, skilled personnel have in their crucial, frontline role keeping key workers and the public healthy, safe and well.
The logo was launched at the Manchester Cleaning Show in 2022, where free We Clean, We Care badges were offered to attendees. Several thousand have since been issued to industry staff and BCC members.
The logo is available to the wider cleaning and hygiene industry for free for use on websites, in marketing materials and social media. You can find out more about the campaign and download the logo here.
All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Cleaning and Hygiene Industry
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Cleaning and Hygiene Industry was inaugurated in February 2021, with the support of a sizeable number of MPs from all the major political parties and members of The House of Lords.
The group exists to promote the critical importance of the cleaning and hygiene industry to the people of the United Kingdom.
The APPG is operated by the MPs and members of the House of Lords with the British Cleaning Council acting in the role of secretariat and organising a significant number of steering groups in seeking to carry out the industry’s clear, focused and much needed strategic aims.
For additional information, please visit the APPG webpages here or email the APPG’s secretariat via Simon Hollingbery at compsec@britishcleaningcouncil.org or
The British Cleaning Council is leading a campaign calling for industry members to speak up for their industry, help lobby MPs and sign a petition to make cleaning and hygiene a national priority.
The BCC and associations from across the industry are frustrated by the lack of interest from MPs (except for Chairman Nigel Mills MP) and political parties in the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Cleaning and Hygiene Industry, entitled Embedding Effective Hygiene for a Resilient UK.
The report’s recommendations, if implemented, would put cleaning and hygiene at the heart of the national agenda, making the nation much more resilient to current common infections and also much better prepared for future public health emergencies, like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Members of the industry are being asked to download and adapt a pre-written letter to email to their local MP, and also to sign a petition calling on the Government to implement the report recommendations in full.
Find out how to support the campaign here.
BCC Staff
Our Chair is Delia Cannings, who was previously Deputy Chair for two years. Delia is a well-known and respected figure in the industry, having worked in the sector for 45 years and in fields including both the public and private sectors and the cleaning, health, hospitality, commercial, education and training sectors.
Delia is the owner and Executive Director of Environmental Excellence Training & Development Ltd, which she founded. She is also National Lead for Education and Training for BCC member the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals (ahcp) and Deputy Chair for the UK Housekeepers Association (UKHA), Midlands Committee.
BCC Deputy Chair is David Garcia, also a leading industry figure. David has been closely associated with BCC council for a number of years and is Treasurer and Vice-President of BCC member the Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA).
He has been in the industry for almost 50 years and was the founder and former Chairman of Polaris Plastics, which is one of the UK’s leading providers of refuse sacks and bin liners to the away from home market.
The BCC's Company Secretary is Simon Hollingbery.
Delia replaced as Chair Jim Melvin, who had been elected in 2021.
