I'd just like to add my thoughts to this posting ( just discovered this site by the way and very impressed). I used to be a local authority housing manager before I wised up and joined the self employed, and I can tell you that your LA will not have the faintest idea what they should pay for a good house clean, so that suggests you can charge what you want. Having said that, if you can get established with the local council by doing a good job and not seriously ripping them off, you will be appreciated. There are not many people around these days who will go in to clean a filthy house, there are the big nationwide companies of course, but most housing managers will have had bad experiences with them.
Re Mike Hallidays comments - he is absolutely right, specialising is the key to making decent money, but you have to get experience of the business first before you can decide which area to go for. Personally, though I am a carpet cleaner I will clean anything because you never know where it will lead. You would be shocked if I told you what I have charged for some basic domestic cleaning jobs, but this is because I know enough about the business now to know what a "proper" rate of pay is. I think the UK is beginning to wake up to the fact that cleaning is not unskilled work.
By the way Mike, £12 an hour is not a "crappy" rate of pay as any postman will tell you, and I reckon that someone just starting out on their own earning that sort of money is doing OK.