Felling licences and where planning permission overlaps

Two separate permissions can bite on the same tree. A tree felling licence comes from the Forestry Commission under the Forestry Act 1967 and controls the felling of growing trees for forestry reasons. Planning control comes from the council, through a Tree Preservation Order, conservation area notification or a condition on a permission. Neither regime cancels the other automatically, and landowners who assume the planning consent covers everything are the ones who receive a restocking notice.

When a felling licence is required

The starting position under the Forestry Act is that felling growing trees needs a licence. The exemptions are what most rural owners actually rely on.

Trees in a garden, orchard, churchyard or public open space are outside the licensing regime. Small trees are exempt by size, measured overbark at 1.3 m from the ground: broadly, trees of 8 cm diameter or less, thinnings of 10 cm or less, and coppice or underwood of 15 cm or less. There is also a volume allowance of 5 cubic metres per calendar quarter, of which no more than 2 cubic metres may be sold. Dead trees and trees presenting an immediate danger are treated separately, and the Forestry Commission expects evidence of the condition rather than an assertion after the event.

Check the current guidance before relying on any of these, because the thresholds and the treatment of dead wood have been revised over the years and the figures above should be verified against the published position.

Volume, quarters and the trap in the allowance

The 5 cubic metre quarterly allowance is per owner, per quarter, not per woodland. Felling 4 cubic metres in March and 4 more in early April is two quarters, which is lawful. Felling 9 cubic metres across a single weekend is not, however you record it.

Volume means the volume of timber, not the number of stems, so a small number of mature trees can exhaust the allowance. Get an estimate from whoever is doing the work before the chainsaws arrive, and keep the calculation. Our note on site clearance before a planning application covers the wider risk of tidying a site early, which on wooded land includes losing the baseline your ecology and biodiversity evidence depends on.

Where planning permission removes the need for a licence

The Forestry Act exempts felling that is immediately required for carrying out development authorised by planning permission. Three words do the work.

"Immediately required" means the felling has to be needed now, for the development, not at some point in an outline masterplan. "Authorised" means a permission capable of implementation, so an outline consent with reserved matters outstanding is unlikely to qualify. And the exemption is limited to what the development requires, which is not the same as clearing the whole compartment while the contractor is on site.

The last row surprises people. Where the Forestry Commission grants a licence for trees also covered by an Order, the separate TPO consent is not required, because the two regimes are designed to avoid duplication. The Commission consults the council as part of the process, so the council still gets its say.

Restocking conditions and how long they bind

A licence is commonly granted with conditions requiring the land to be restocked and the young trees maintained for a period of years afterwards. Those conditions bind successors in title. A buyer who takes on a felled compartment takes on the restocking obligation with it, which is why the licence and its conditions belong in the replies to enquiries on any woodland sale.

Restocking specifications cover species, spacing, protection from deer and rabbits, and replacement of failures. Beating up, replacing dead stock in the years after planting, is the part that gets forgotten, and a failure rate above what the licence allows puts you in breach even though you planted everything on day one.

Where the woodland is also subject to a planning agreement, the two sets of obligations need to be read together. Our piece on long-term tree management under a planning agreement sets out how those commitments are typically drafted and monitored.

Enforcement and restocking notices

Felling without a licence is an offence under the Forestry Act, and the Commission can serve a restocking notice requiring the owner to replant and maintain. The notice runs with the land. An appeal route exists, but the practical position is that an owner who has felled 30 cubic metres without a licence has very little to argue about.

Planning enforcement is separate and can be harsher in cash terms. Damaging or destroying a tree protected by an Order is a criminal offence with the fine set by the planning legislation, and the council can also require replacement planting. Our note on penalties for damaging a protected tree sets out how that works in practice. Both regimes can apply to the same act.

Sequencing a licence against a planning application

On a site where trees have to come out for development, the order of operations decides whether you need a licence at all.

1. Commission a Tree Survey to BS 5837:2012 so you know what is there, its category and its constraints.
2. Establish whether any tree is protected by an Order or sits in a conservation area, and whether the land is woodland for Forestry Act purposes.
3. Design the scheme around retention where you can, because removal you can avoid is removal you never have to justify.
4. Apply for planning permission with the arboricultural information attached.
5. Once permission is granted and the felling is immediately required for it, rely on the Forestry Act exemption for that work only.
6. For anything beyond the development footprint, apply for a felling licence and allow for the public register and consultation period.

Applying for a felling licence in parallel is sometimes the safer route on large sites, particularly where the development programme is uncertain. Allow months rather than weeks, and remember that the application appears on a public register.

The practical position for rural owners

Most farm and estate felling falls into one of three boxes. Garden and orchard trees, where the licence regime is irrelevant but a TPO may not be. Small-scale work inside the quarterly volume allowance, which needs a note in the diary and a volume calculation. And woodland management, which needs either a licence or an approved management plan.

Development changes the picture only for the trees the development actually requires. Everything else stays under forestry control, and the landscape mitigation you offer in a Landscape Strategy does not substitute for either consent.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with the Forestry Commission and your local planning authority, and take advice from a qualified arboriculturist or forester before felling. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.