The Car Wash Association’s Brian Madderson welcomes tougher government action against rogue hand car wash operators, but says it is long overdue.
It is encouraging to see that the new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is holding true to her word that hand car washes suspected of employing illegal workers would be targeted as a priority sector by immigration officers this summer.
In virtually her first statement in office she promised to ramp up raids to hunt out businesses that were employing operatives with “no right to work”. In the intervening weeks there have been many press reports, both national and local, highlighting the success of such raids. Severe fines are levied on the business owners. It will be interesting to find out what the fines amount to, and more importantly how much of them will actually be collected. The figures are likely to be large, with Car Wash Association research confirming that fines totalling nearly £2.5 million were imposed on the hand car wash sector in 2023.
We hope that the renewed interest from the Home Office will have an effect. While the number of hand car washes have reduced to around 5,000 to 6,000, down from at least double that level 10 years ago, the amount of illegal activity is remaining stubbornly high. Of course not all hand car washes are running illegally, but the level of the problem is reflected by fines for the first quarter of 2024, at £710,000, being more than double for the same period in 2023, at £310,000. This provides yet more evidence that this sector urgently needs proper control, and enforcement of existing regulations covering tax, labour exploitation and environmental protection.
We were hugely disappointed that the previous government shelved its bold plans to introduce a single enforcement body, merging the employment interests of the HMRC minimum wage unit, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate at the Department for Business and Trade. This would have directed attention to the non-compliant hand car wash sector.
But it has been encouraging to see the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds are fully endorsing the proposed Fair Work Agency, which largely replicates the formerly proposed single enforcement body. Consultation is taking place with the TUC and others involved. It is hoped that the Fair Work Agency will have enforcement capability, such as the “right to enter a property”, as well as regulatory responsibility.
In tandem, Nottingham Trent University’s Work, Informalisation and Place Research Centre led by Professor Ian Clark, is completing its internally funded study into the operational and financial feasibility of a national licensing scheme for hand car washes. The need for such a scheme was first raised by Matthew Taylor in early 2020 when he was interim director of Labour Market Enforcement. The university’s report is due to be published this autumn with presentations being planned to government, local government, plus the House of Commons and the House of Lords before the year end.
The Car Wash Association is fully supportive of both the proposed Fair Work Agency and the national licensing scheme. Our staff are working closely with Nottingham Trent University and all the relevant government departments and agencies.
It feels at last as if we are getting some momentum in cleaning up the hand car wash industry.
Brian Madderson is a consultant and former chairman of the CWA and the Petrol Retailers’ Association. His career included a 20-year stint as managing director of George Hammond, where he had responsibility for the company’s petrol retailing and car wash division.
