Usually, no, if the tree is in your garden, and quite possibly yes if it is not. A felling licence is permission from the Forestry Commission to fell growing trees. You generally need one before felling anything more than a small volume of timber in any calendar quarter, and felling without one is an offence. Trees in gardens are generally exempt, which is why most homeowners never come across the system at all. Woodland owners, landowners and anyone clearing a site ahead of development are a different matter: for them the licence question comes up early, and it can hold up everything else on the job.
What a felling licence actually is
The felling licence system exists to protect tree cover as a whole rather than individual trees. Where a tree preservation order protects a particular tree or group for its amenity value, the felling licence regime is concerned with the volume of timber being removed from the land. It is administered by the Forestry Commission rather than the council, and it applies whether or not anyone objects to the work.
The basic rule is simple to state and easy to trip over. If you intend to fell growing trees, you need a licence unless an exemption applies. Small volumes per calendar quarter are exempt, and there are further exemptions for trees below certain sizes, but the figures are set by the Forestry Commission and do change, so check current guidance rather than relying on numbers you were given years ago.
When you generally do not need one
The exemptions most people rely on are these:
- Trees in gardens. Domestic gardens are generally outside the system, along with orchards, churchyards and public open spaces. This is why a homeowner removing a single tree rarely deals with the Forestry Commission at all.
- Small volumes. A small volume of timber can be felled in any calendar quarter without a licence. The current figures are published in Forestry Commission guidance, and it is worth checking them each time rather than assuming they have stayed the same.
- Certain other cases. There are exemptions for some dangerous trees and for some felling carried out to implement a full planning permission, but both are narrower than they sound, and anyone relying on them should be able to show that the exemption applied.
Note what that list does not include: small woodlands, shelterbelts, field corners and rough land at the edge of a site. If trees are growing on land that is not a garden, the safer starting assumption is that the licence rules apply until you have confirmed otherwise.
Where it bites: woodlands and site clearance
For woodland owners the licence is simply part of managing the land. Thinning, coppicing and clear felling can all count as felling for licence purposes, and a sensible management plan is built around what a licence allows and the conditions attached to it. Working outside those conditions causes much the same problems as having no licence at all, so the paperwork deserves the same care as the saw work.
Site clearance is where the trouble usually starts. A site can be stripped quickly, and the volume felled can go well past anything the quarterly exemption covers. Planning permission does not automatically make it lawful: the development exemption is specific, and outline permission, or the hope of a future permission, is unlikely to be enough. Felling without a licence can lead to fines, which for the most serious breaches can be unlimited, and it can complicate the very development the clearance was meant to unlock.
If a development site is involved, the trees usually need recording properly in any case. A BS5837 tree survey sets out what is on the site and what the design has to work around, and it is the natural point at which the felling licence question gets asked and answered, before any machinery arrives.
Licences are not the only control on felling
A felling licence does not override a tree preservation order or a conservation area, and the reverse is equally true. The same trees can be caught by both regimes at once, and each has to be satisfied separately. For orders and conservation areas the council’s registers are the definitive record, and our guide to checking whether a tree is protected explains how to look. The practical rule is short: confirm the position with both the council and the Forestry Commission before felling anything beyond the garden. This article is general information rather than legal advice, and current Forestry Commission guidance is the place to confirm the detail.
Where our team fits in
Our surveyors assess trees and the constraints around them across Preston, Lancashire and the wider North West, from single garden trees to woodlands and development sites. Part of every tree survey we carry out is establishing which consents apply before any work is recommended. The report stands alone: it does not depend on us doing any tree work, and you are free to take it to any contractor you choose. Great Oaks is an ARB Approved Contractor and our survey work is backed by professional indemnity insurance. We quote within one working day, the price we quote is the price you pay, survey visits are booked within days, and the report follows days after the visit, not weeks.
If you are not sure whether your trees fall inside the felling licence system, or what the Forestry Commission or the council will want to see before work starts, use the free scope check form on our tree surveys page or call 01772 369694. We will tell you what you need, and just as readily what you do not.
