The Car Wash Association is calling on the next government to mandate a national licensing scheme for hand car washes, most of which it says are “blatantly disregarding employment laws with minimal enforcement from the relevant authorities”.
Non-compliant car washes vastly outnumber legally operated sites and are “empowering criminals and endangering lives”, according to CWA executive director Gordon Balmer.
“A national licensing scheme must be part of any prospective government’s strategy to address these employment law violations,” said Balmer, who also heads the Petrol Retailers Association. “Inaction allows criminals to operate with impunity. The CWA is urging the next government to make this a top priority in their legislative agenda.”
It comes as Nottingham Trent University prepares to publish a study into how a local authority-run mandatory licensing scheme could be introduced for the car wash sector. The work, which the CWA is cooperating with, began in August 2023 and was due to finish this month.
Under the scheme, researchers looked at almost 2,000 hand car wash sites across a third of the UK’s local authorities and found “widespread business and labour-market non-compliance with sites falling short of planning permission, insurance, health and safety, and environmental safety”. It also concluded that the sector was “high-risk for worker exploitation”.
While there have been efforts to tackle incidents of illegality at hand car washes, such as the setting up several years ago of the Responsible Car Wash Scheme, the CWA believes too little is being done to enforce the law, largely because so many different agencies and departments are responsible for enforcing different aspects, from environmental health infringements to illegal employment.
One of these agencies is the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, a public body whose role is to protect vulnerable and exploited workers. Its former member, Darryl Dixon, is involved in the Nottingham Trent study. The GLAA does operate a licensing scheme across several industries, such as agriculture, horticulture and shellfish gathering, but retail sectors including nail bars, barbers and hand car washes are not covered.
