A commercial cleaning firm owner running contracts at £800 to £1,500 per month knows to the penny what each site costs. Labour takes the largest share, and from April 2026 the National Living Wage reached £12.71 per hour. Insurance premiums at the last renewal were 15 to 20 percent higher. Energy costs remain around 30 percent above pre-2023 levels. The contracts signed two years ago no longer cover what it takes to deliver the service.
The question is how to tell clients in a way that holds the relationship.
What goes into a price increase letter for a cleaning or facilities firm?
A price increase letter for a cleaning or facilities business is a short written notice to existing clients covering four things: the new rate, when it takes effect, the reason costs have risen, and how long the new rate holds. Done well, it reads as a service communication rather than an apology. It protects the client relationship while protecting your margin.
The Window Cleaning Association provides its members with a template that gets the structure right. Open with thanks for the client’s custom, name the specific cost drivers (the WCA template cites insurance and diesel), state the new price for the particular property or site, set a clear effective date, and commit to a fixed period before the next review.
That last point is often skipped. A client who knows the new rate holds until a stated date can plan for it. One who suspects another increase is six months away cannot. Adding a firm review date costs nothing and reduces the chance of the client starting a re-tender conversation the moment the letter arrives.
For commercial cleaning specifically, The Clean Space’s approach adds something useful: anchor the letter to the agreed scope before stating the new fee. Five days per week, two hours per evening, kitchens and washrooms included. The client sees what they are still getting for the money alongside the new figure, which keeps the value visible rather than buried behind the price change.
Why does the letter matter more than a phone call?
A phone call is easy to misremember. A short written notice creates a shared record of the new rate, the effective date, and the rationale behind it. For commercial cleaning contracts running at £800 to £2,000 per month or more, that record is not a formality. It becomes the reference point if any billing disagreement surfaces in the months after the change.
The letter also does something a conversation cannot: it positions the increase within a visible sector context. A February 2026 FM Industry survey found that rising cost of doing business is the biggest challenge facing UK cleaning firms. The National Living Wage uplift to £12.71 per hour is a publicly known event. Insurance premiums across the sector have risen 15 to 20 percent. When the letter references figures your client has likely seen in their own supplier relationships, the increase reads as a market event rather than a decision you made alone.
Minster Cleaning’s public commentary on the sector makes the risk plain: when prices rise, clients compare against the market and may re-tender. The firms that hold clients frame the increase as the cost of maintaining quality. A letter puts that framing on paper in a way that a conversation rarely does.
Where do price increase letters go wrong?
The most common failure is vague justification. “Due to rising costs” tells a client nothing they can assess. Sector figures give you concrete anchors: insurance premiums for commercial cleaning businesses have risen around 15 to 20 percent, energy costs remain about 30 percent above pre-2023 levels, and the National Living Wage uplift to £12.71 per hour is a matter of public record.
The second failure is no effective date, or no commitment to how long the new rate holds. Without a date, the letter reads as an open-ended demand. The WCA template handles both: it states when the new price starts and confirms the rate holds until a specific point. Clients can budget for a known number. They cannot budget for a moving one.
A third failure, easier to miss, is hiding scope reductions inside a price increase. If you are raising the rate and quietly cutting frequency or tasks, clients will notice in the service before they see it in writing. Britshine’s published pricing guide for York sets standard commercial rates at £12 to £18 per hour, with deep cleans sitting at £20 to £35. If the scope changes, the letter should say so directly. Wrapping a scope cut inside a price rise invites complaints and damages trust in a sector where trust is the primary reason clients stay.
One legal point belongs in the letter’s design rather than its wording. The ICO treats a price change notification to existing business clients as a service message rather than direct marketing under PECR, provided the letter contains no promotional content. Keep it factual and client-specific. If you add an upsell, a referral request, or a promotion for additional services, the letter risks being reclassified, which changes the consent requirements.
When should you send the letter and when should you wait?
Timing matters as much as the wording. The two strongest trigger points are your contract review clause, which gives you standing to raise prices with proper notice, and the April National Living Wage uplift, which provides a cost anchor your clients can verify independently. Announcing an increase immediately after a service complaint or an inconsistent stretch of delivery is almost always the wrong moment.
St Anne’s Housekeeping’s London Cleaning Price Index reports 2.8 percent year-on-year growth for London cleaning services in 2026, broadly tracking wage inflation. That figure suggests the sector norm is small, regular adjustments rather than large, infrequent ones. A firm that has held prices flat for three years and then raises them by 20 to 25 percent will face far more resistance than one that has moved 5 to 8 percent annually. York shows a wider band of 8 to 12 percent, reflecting distinct pressures including city-centre access costs and specialist facilities work rather than a sign that large one-off jumps are standard.
For notice periods, respect whatever variation clause exists in the contract. Where no clause is written, 30 days is standard in business-to-business practice. The CMA’s guidance on fair pricing makes clear that variation terms need to be transparent and prominent in contracts going forward, so this is also a sensible moment to add a review clause to any new agreements you are signing.
What else is worth sorting out at the same time?
A price increase letter is a useful moment to review things that drift quietly in service businesses. Check whether the scope in your live contracts still matches what you are actually delivering. If tasks, hours, or additional sites have been added informally since the contract was signed, the increase letter is a natural point to formalise those changes rather than continue absorbing them without payment.
For new contracts from this point forward, build a price review mechanism into the terms. A clause that links annual adjustments to the National Living Wage or a named index gives you a defensible basis for every future increase. It removes the awkward annual letter and replaces it with a mechanism both parties agreed to at the outset. The CMA’s guidance on unfair contract terms notes that unilateral price variation clauses must be transparent and prominent to hold up, so the drafting matters.
APM Cleaning’s sector commentary is worth quoting here: the firms managing cost pressures most effectively are investing in training, technology, and compliance at the same time as they raise prices. If part of your increase reflects higher certification costs, specialist chemical protocols, or infection control standards your clients rely on, say so in the letter. A communication that connects the new rate to the quality of what the client receives is always easier to accept than one that connects it only to your costs.
