CWA RESPONDS TO CHANCELLOR'S SPRING STATEMENT
26/03/2025
Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Car Wash Association responded to the Chancellor's Budget:
"We welcome the Chancellor's announcement that HMRC will crack down on unpaid fines. Illegal hand car washes have for too long been flouting regulations and ignoring the corresponding fines with impunity. HMRC has let this go totally unenforced, leaving millions of pounds uncollected and allowing criminals to profit at the expense of law-abiding, taxpaying businesses."
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ILLEGAL WORKER FINES OF £3M AT HAND CAR WASHES (HCW)
05/03/2025
Brian Madderson, Chair of the Car Wash Association (CWA), was shocked but not surprised by the latest figures from the Illegal Immigration Unit at the Home Office, he said
“Every major report over the last 10 years has highlighted the serious labour abuse at non-compliant HCW and yet so little has been done by our enforcement agencies to eradicate their illegal practices. Despite the Home Secretary’s pledge to tackle illegal working and the increased investigations resulting in £2.9M fines for just the 3rd quarter of 2024, the reality is that this sector is being allowed to continue working.
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CWA SUPPORTS NEW FAIR WORK AGENCY TO COMBAT MODERN SLAVERY IN NON-COMPLIANT HAND CAR WASHES
17/10/2024
The Car Wash Association (CWA) strongly supports for the government’s proposal to establish a Fair Work Agency aimed at enforcing workers' rights and addressing illegal employment practices. This new agency, as part of the Employment Rights Bill, will consolidate various enforcement bodies under one umbrella, empowering them to take decisive action in high-risk sectors like non-compliant hand car washes.
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CAR WASH ASSOCIATION APPLAUDS GOVERNMENT’S ACTION ON ILLEGAL WORKERS
22/07/2024
“In a modern society, there is no place for modern slavery. We welcome the Government's initiative to target businesses employing illegal workers in car washes. However, it is disappointing that it has taken so long to address this well-documented issue.” said Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Car Wash Association (CWA).
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HAND CAR WASHES A HOTBED FOR ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, SAYS CWA
13/06/2024
"Non-compliant hand car washes, that vastly outnumber legally operated sites, are blatantly disregarding employment laws, with minimal enforcement from the relevant authorities. When employment laws are ignored, people suffer. These hand car washes, many of which only accept payment in cash, are often a hotbed of modern slavery and other illegal activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion. The continued lack of action on this issue empowers these criminals and endangers lives." said Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Car Wash Association (CWA) in response to recent Home Office figures showing that hand car washes racked up almost £2.5m in civil penalties last year.
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CWA COMMENTS ON THAMES WATER’S ONGOING CHALLENGES
22/04/2024
"As the Thames Water saga drags on, the company is ignoring its responsibility to keep our environment clean,” said Gordon Balmer Executive Director of the Car Wash Association, commenting on the latest Thames Water’s latest issues.
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CAR WASH ASSOCIATION COMMENTS ON RIGHT TO WORK OFFENCES
26/02/2024
Data from the Illegal Immigration Unit at the Home Office showed that 78 hand car washes across the UK had been fined a total of nearly £1.5 million for ‘right to work’ offences in the first nine months of 2023.
Brian Madderson, Chairman of the Car Wash Association (CWA), said:
“It is disappointing that even in the face of blatant violations of the law, the Government is still unwilling to crack down on illegal hand car wash operators."
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LATEST SAFE CAR WASH APP REPORT RAISES CONCERN FOR CWA
02/08/2023
Commenting on the newly released data from The Clewer Initiative's Safe Car Wash App, Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Car Wash Association (CWA) said:
“I am deeply concerned to see the report highlighting the widespread exploitation taking place in hand car wash businesses, especially as a third of all reports submitted through the app raised significant concerns regarding modern slavery and exploitation. The shocking 127% increase in the number of high-scoring reports referred to the Modern Slavery Helpline (MSH) compared to the previous 6 months is alarming.
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CWA COMMENTS ON BBC MODERN SLAVERY INVESTIGATION
27/07/2023
"It is very positive to see the BBC taking on the crucial task of exposing modern slavery and creating awareness about this pressing issue. We are pleased that the material we provided contributed to their in-depth research. We remain available to provide guidance and insights on this urgent matter that we have been tirelessly working to bring to public attention,” said Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Car Wash Association (CWA)
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CWA WELCOMES GOVERNMENT’S NEW ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
13/07/2023
The Car Wash Association (CWA) welcomes the Government’s recent announcement of new legislation to tackle environment offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
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