How to find council cleaning contracts in the UK

UK councils buy cleaning for offices, schools, leisure centres, housing and civic buildings. Those opportunities are public. You do not need a paid portal to see them. This guide shows how to find official local-authority cleaning notices on Find a Tender and, where it still applies, Contracts Finder.

Where the notices are published

From 24 February 2025, new UK public procurement notices — including many below-threshold contracts — are published on Find a Tender, the central digital platform under the Procurement Act 2023. The exception is below-threshold notices in Scotland, which Find a Tender directs you to Public Contracts Scotland. In Wales also check Sell2Wales; in Northern Ireland, eTendersNI.

Contracts Finder still matters for procurements that started under the earlier Public Contracts Regulations 2015, including some awards. See our Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder guide and PPN 019.

The buyer on a council contract will usually be named as the local authority (for example a London borough, county, district, unitary, metropolitan or combined authority) or a body buying on its behalf, such as a shared-service organisation or a school catering and cleaning framework lead.

How to search Find a Tender

1. Open the Find a Tender search.
2. Use keywords that match the work you actually do, not only the word “cleaning”. Useful starting points include: cleaning, window cleaning, janitorial, hygiene, washroom, deep clean, caretaker, building cleaning, and school cleaning.
3. Add a CPV code if you can. Official notices use Common Procurement Vocabulary codes to describe what is being bought. Codes often used for cleaning include: - 90910000 — Cleaning services - 90911000 — Accommodation, building and window cleaning services - 90911200 — Building-cleaning services - 90911300 — Window-cleaning services - 90919200 — Office cleaning services
4. Filter by location if you only cover certain regions, and by notice type. Tender notices are live opportunities. Pipeline and preliminary market engagement notices flag work that is coming. Award and contract details notices show who won, which helps you see which councils buy the services you offer.
5. Open every result and read the official notice: buyer, estimated value, deadline, how to submit, and whether the work is a one-off contract, a framework or a place on a dynamic market.

Keyword search alone will miss notices titled around “facilities management”, “soft FM” or “building support services” that include cleaning as a lot or a part of a wider contract. It is worth running a second search for facilities management (CPV 79993100 is Facilities management services) and reading the documents before you decide it is too large.

Official email alerts, for free

On Find a Tender, sign in with a GOV.UK One Login, save your search and turn on email notifications. Do the same on Contracts Finder if you also want transitional or older notices. This is the official, free route, and for many firms it is enough.

If you plan to bid, also register your organisation as a supplier on the central digital platform. Buyers can ask you to share your core details with a share code when you submit.

Other official places worth a look

• The council’s own website often has a procurement or “selling to the council” page, and many authorities publish a contracts register. These do not replace Find a Tender, but they can show current suppliers and upcoming retenders.
• Some work is bought through a framework or a dynamic market already set up by the council, a group of councils, or a central buying organisation. The original framework notice and later award or transparency notices still appear on the official portals. You generally need to have been appointed to the framework to win call-off work.
• For facilities-style contracts that bundle cleaning with maintenance or security, see how to find construction and facilities tenders.

Always follow the submission instructions on the notice. Find a Tender lists the opportunity; the bid itself usually goes through the council’s e-tendering system.

If you would rather have one daily email

UK Tender Alerts is a daily filtered email of new official notices from Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. After you subscribe you can set keywords (for example “cleaning, hygiene, janitorial”), CPV codes such as 9091, a region and a minimum value, so you are not reading every facilities notice in the country.

Start a 14-day free trial, then £15 a month. Cancel any time. Every item links back to the official notice. The service is a filter over public data: it does not guarantee that every notice is listed or that a listed notice is still open.