Howden Ward · Howden Community Hub

FREE CLEANS
FOR NEW PARENTS

Starting in Howden Ward.
Scaling ward by ward.
Real jobs. Real support.

Not a one-off gift — a way to multiply prosperity in the North East: two hours of peace for new parents, paid work for local cleaners, and software that makes it all run. Based at Howden Community Hub. First area: Howden Ward — about 150 births a year as a planning estimate when fully covered.

Important — not a registered charity (yet)

This programme is not registered as a charity with the Charity Commission. We run free welcome-home cleans as a community project. All donations are paid into Tyneside Cleaning (tyneside.cleaning) — a trading company — which then funds paid cleaner hours for new parents.

Our promise: for every £30 raised, we will deliver one 2-hour free clean for a family.

Donations & cleans tracker

Public board of gifts and how many free cleans they have paid for. Families who receive cleans stay anonymous — we only publish counts. Last updated 2026-07-18.

£300 Raised so far
10 Cleans paid for
0 Cleans delivered
10 Still to deliver

How we keep this honest

  • Promise: for every £30 raised, we deliver one 2-hour free clean.
  • After you pay, we add your name, location, amount, and date to the donor list within 3 business days (manual update from Tide).
  • Cleans delivered are a count only — no family names, no addresses.

Donor list

Date Name Location Amount
2026-07-18 Michael Thomson Shiremoor £300
Total raised £300

Why I’m doing this

My ambition is to bring prosperity to the North East — somehow. I’ve been looking at my own life for the highest-leverage personal way to do that. I don’t want to give money once. I want it to multiply.

A cleaner, when things were falling apart

I’ve had rough times. When everything around me is falling apart, I sometimes struggle to prioritise the little things. At one of those points, not keeping the house clean started to cause real friction with relatives. So I hired a cleaner.

It’s one of the highest-impact supports I’ve ever had — not flashy, just practical dignity when I needed it.

After my children were born

When I think about when that support would have mattered most, I land on the weeks after each of my children arrived — Lewis, Katie, and Harriet. A whirlwind every time: everyone coming to see the baby, nobody leaving you alone, sleepless nights, no rest.

For just two hours, I want to give new parents some of that time back — to relax, and to be with their baby. That’s the welcome-home clean.

Ripple effects — not just a gift

The vision isn’t only the clean. It’s the side effects that make the impact ripple:

  • Local cleaners — a pool of new customers and paid work (we’ve started companies to make that real)
  • Field-services software — this is my real job; the programme is also a serious excuse to build excellent logistics and work-management tools
  • Multiplied money — train people, win commercial work, fund more cleans and more jobs

Start where we are — Howden Community Hub and Howden Ward. Prove it. Scale ward by ward. Discussed in that spirit with Julie Marriott (Family Gateway).

The longer personal ground

There is more under this than a single rough patch or one newborn week — childhood coping that stuck, a long self-engineered path I am only now fully seeing, and a choice to walk through the door with open eyes. That story lives on this page only; it is not a commercial pitch.

I’m choosing to walk through that door →

The offer

2 hours Deep clean package
£30 Promises one 2-hour clean
~150 Births / year (Howden Ward, est.)

Free core package for new parents in Howden Ward first. Cleaners paid fairly. Software free to the programme. Planning figure ~150 births/year for a ward of ~12–13k people (approx. UK-scale birth rate — refine as local data lands).

Funding phases — Howden Ward

Early phases are self-fundable personally; donations paid into Tyneside Cleaning cover scale as we grow. Promise: for every £30 raised, we deliver one 2-hour free clean. This programme is not a registered charity yet.

Phase Additional cleans Cost this phase Cumulative cleans Cumulative cost
Pilot (launch) 10 £300 10 £300
First expansion +30 £900 40 £1,200
Second expansion +50 £1,500 90 £2,700
Third expansion +40 £1,200 130 £3,900
Full Howden Ward +20 (to ~150) £600 150 £4,500
Total annual cost — fully scaled Howden Ward (est.) £4,500 / year

Promise: for every £30 raised, we deliver one 2-hour free clean (paid to the cleaner via Tyneside Cleaning). Full-ward target ~150 cleans/year ≈ £4,500 / year (planning estimate).

Extend or gift a clean

Parents can extend

Pay to extend any clean at £15 per hour (minimum 2 hours). Paid via Tyneside Cleaning; that money pays the cleaner for the extra time.

Relatives & friends can gift

Gift extra cleans the same way — perfect for baby showers or “welcome home” presents. Same rate; same route: paid into Tyneside Cleaning, through to the cleaner.

Prefer a general gift to the programme? See donation amounts — from £3 up to £3,000, or WhatsApp another figure.

Powered by Tyneside Software

The software company builds booking, scheduling, routing, and customer portals for free for cleaners on this programme.

Who benefits

New parents

A deep clean when you come home with a newborn. Free core package. No stigma.

Local cleaners

Paid work on programme cleans. Free software. Real jobs, not free labour.

The region

Hyper-local proof in Howden Ward from Howden Community Hub, then the next ward.

Part of the three-pronged plan

Community cleans, cleaning business, and software — one North East jobs engine.

01

Software

Vertical logistics and work-management for any business that sends people out to jobs. Free for local cleaners while we prove the product.

tyneside.software →

02

Cleaning

Volume cleaning starting Howden Ward (£30/2hrs). All money to cleaner fees — zero founder draw. Jobs, software customers, surplus to charity.

tyneside.cleaning →

03

Charity

Free welcome-home cleans for new parents — starting Howden Ward. Not a registered charity yet; donations paid into Tyneside Cleaning fund paid cleaner hours.

tyneside.charity →

I’m choosing to walk through that door

I had a bit of a rough childhood with older children, and I learned coping techniques that stuck. Recently I had a moment where I realised I had tricked myself into getting where I am now — over a really long time — and I still have no idea how deep it all goes.

I only just figured it out by talking so much about why I am doing what I am doing. By working back through the probability tree, I’m almost working back through my life. It’s a journey where I am just following where it goes and seeing where it takes me.

I have been watching this video and it really resonated — what he said about training for life, not for a race. I’m choosing to walk through that door. Here goes.

David Goggins — I’m training for life →

Get involved

Donate, gift a clean, refer a Howden Ward family, or join as a cleaner. Find us at Howden Community Hub. Remember: this is not a registered charity yet — payments go via Tyneside Cleaning.

Message on WhatsApp — that’s where I pay most attention.
Email is fine too, but I’m much slower: michael@tyneside.software

With Cleaning · On Software · Howden Community Hub & Family Gateway