The working height directive has been introduced in 2004 to bring Great Britain in line with the rest of Europe in working safely at height. On the 6th April 2005 the directive became law and industry is rapidly adopting alternative working practices for any work at height.

The directive is a 180 page document that has a certain level of grey interpretation to the reader and the window cleaning industry is still divided on the impact for the future.


A Forrest & Son has adopted safer working practises and will only use ladders for access and any work will be carried out from the ground.

The working at height directive 2004 stipulates that any unfixed platform, being directly worked from higher than one meter will become an unsafe working practice and an alternative method should be adopted wherever possible.

Work at height can be carried out in many different ways but it is believed that Water Fed Pole cleaning is the most cost effective when compared to Cherry/scissor picker operators, abseiling teams and any other alternatives.

The benefits of pole cleaning are:

Unobtrusive
Safer
Longer Lasting Clean
Nominal Set-up Time
Can reach previous hard to reach windows