Looking to the future...
Andrew Large, Chief Executive of the CSSA, takes a look into the future of the cleaning industry for the next year, and offers his predictions, thoughts and expectations. Crystal ball
gazing is always a dangerous occupation. It is even more hazardous in today’s economic environment where the fates of nations
hang on negotiations between bankers and governments; a million miles away from the concerns of ordinary people.
However, in this fog of uncertainty, for me three key themes are emerging that will affect the UK cleaning industry in 2012.
1) Globalisation
It goes without saying that, as the world becomes more interconnected, events in other countries will begin to have impacts here in the UK. The cleaning industry is likely to feel these in three main ways.
The global economic downturn will continue to have a damaging effect on investment into the UK – which leads to the empty office buildings and shops that we can all see. These are all buildings that are not being cleaned and are a direct cut in demand for cleaning.
As other nations, especially in the EU experience severe economic contraction, we can expect that their citizens will move out across the EU seeking employment. Net outward migration from Ireland is due to be 100,000 in 2011 and 2012 combined.
Estimates of migration for Portugal suggest that 120,000 people moved abroad in 2011. Emigrants for political safety from North Africa are adding to the pressure. Such moves, replicated across the EU will have important implications for labour supply in the UK cleaning market, as well as elsewhere.
The third aspect of globalisation is the extension of regulatory competence to a global level. Much of the UK’s regulation is now made globally, and not even in Brussels. The United Nations has the lead on chemical regulation, the International Electro-technical Commission is the lead body for machinery standards and the International Labour Office drives much of the policy on employment issues.
2) Nationalism
While globalisation may be affecting the cleaning industry in some ways, a return to national based policies is also on the cards.
The mood music from the current UK Government on immigration and the right to work is becoming louder and louder. Non- EU migration is all but impossible now, for “unskilled” jobs like cleaning. Student working has also been restricted to 10 hours per week. For those businesses that relied on a regular influx of migrants, this implies a significant change, towards a policy of retaining and training workers or seeking new, EU national workers to employ.
Much of the policy on migration is set in Brussels, but recent public statements by the
FEATURE 06 | TOMORROW’S CLEANING YEARBOOK 2012/2013 | The future of our cleaning industry
likes of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, suggest that the Schengen Agreement is also under threat. Leaving aside the rhetoric of a Presidential election, Sarkozy is giving voice to wider European concerns about immigration and jobs and the conflict between high standards for EU citizens and rising demand for services in a time of austerity. Such a national approach may also manifest itself in the type of “Buy British” campaigns, with which the UK Labour Party is flirting.
3) Quality
For the UK cleaning service supplier, the key question is how to differentiate my business from the dozens of other suppliers close by to me? While there has been a long term trend of commoditisation in the cleaning industry, with much of the competition on price alone, 2012 will see a counter trend gain strength where cleaning contractors seek to compete on quality, value and service rather than pure cost. Why will this happen now? Very simply because the current financials in cleaning are unsustainable - average margins are too small to cover the cost of capital, trapping the industry in a subsistence pattern of development. This is precisely the sort of market place where entrepreneurs will seize the chance to raise capital by showing how innovation can do the job better than before.
www.cleaningindustry.org
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