Felling licences and the quarterly volume exemption

You may fell up to five cubic metres of growing timber in any calendar quarter without a felling licence, and no more than two of those cubic metres may be sold. That is the felling licence exemption volume under the Forestry Act 1967, and it is the rule most often relied on and most often misapplied, because the volume is measured as standing timber, the quarter is a calendar quarter, and the exemption gives no protection at all against a Tree Preservation Order.

When a felling licence is required

Section 9 of the Forestry Act 1967 makes it an offence to fell growing trees without a licence from the Forestry Commission, subject to a list of exemptions. The control is about timber and woodland, and it operates entirely separately from the planning system.

Two consequences follow for anyone working on a wooded site. A planning permission for development does not by itself authorise felling outside the area needed for the development, and a felling licence does not authorise development. Sites where both are needed require both, which is the point covered under woodland felling licences when planning is not enough.

The Commission's remit covers England here. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland operate their own arrangements through their own bodies, so check the right regime for the country the trees are in.

The quarterly volume exemption and the sale limit

The exemption has two numbers and both bite.

Standing volume is the measure that catches people out. It is calculated from diameter and height, and a single mature broadleaf can approach or exceed the quarterly allowance on its own. Estimating by eye, or by counting logs after the event, is not a defence.

The sale limit is separate and lower. Fell four cubic metres for your own firewood and you are inside the exemption. Sell three of them and you are not, even though the felled volume was compliant.

Records matter here more than most people expect. Keep the calculation, the date, the species, the diameters and the heights, because the burden of showing an exemption applies falls on the person who felled the tree.

Exemptions for gardens, orchards and churchyards

The Forestry Act and the exceptions regulations made under it carry a longer list than most owners realise. Trees in gardens, orchards, churchyards and public open spaces are exempt. So are fruit trees, trees below the minimum diameter thresholds measured at 1.3 metres above ground, and felling carried out to prevent danger or to abate a nuisance.

Felling required by an Act of Parliament, and felling carried out in accordance with a planning permission so far as it is necessary to carry out the permitted development, are also outside the licensing requirement.

Each exemption has edges. The garden exemption turns on what is actually a garden rather than on the title plan. The danger exemption is a genuine defence but it is judged objectively, and an arboricultural report recording the defect, the target and the assessment before the work is the difference between an exemption and an offence. Where the tree is being retained rather than felled, the approach set out in retaining a tree through a construction programme is a better starting point than arguing about exemptions.

Interaction with Tree Preservation Orders

This is the single largest misunderstanding in the area. The felling licence exemption is an exemption from the Forestry Act. It is not an exemption from a Tree Preservation Order, from conservation area notification, or from a planning condition protecting trees.

A tree can therefore be exempt from licensing and still protected. Felling it without the authority's consent is an offence under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 regardless of how small the volume was.

Where both regimes apply, the Forestry Commission consults the local planning authority before granting a licence, and licensed felling is generally not then subject to a separate consent under the order. The sequence matters, so confirm the position with both bodies before any saw is started rather than afterwards.

Conservation areas add a third layer. Trees in a conservation area that are not already subject to an order require six weeks' written notice to the council, which may respond by making an order.

Illustrative example: a smallholder clears two self-sown ash from a paddock in March and two more in April. The total across the two quarters sits inside the exemption, and nothing is sold. One of the April trees stands in a conservation area, so the six-week notice was required and was not given. The Forestry Act position is irrelevant to that breach. The offence is a planning one, and the council can require replacement under its own powers.

Applying for a licence and typical timescales

Applications go to the Forestry Commission with a map, the species and volumes, the felling method and the proposed restocking. Applications are placed on a public register and the authority and other consultees are given the chance to comment, so allow several months rather than several weeks.

Where felling forms part of a managed woodland with an approved management plan, the plan itself can carry the felling permissions, which removes the need for separate applications across its term. For an owner expecting to fell periodically, that is usually the better route.

Start early. On a development site with woodland on it, the felling licence timetable is frequently longer than the planning timetable, and a scheme that cannot clear its site is a scheme that cannot start.

Restocking conditions attached to a licence

Most licences carry conditions requiring the area to be restocked and the young trees maintained for a period, often up to ten years. The conditions state the species mix, the stocking density, protection from browsing and the maintenance obligations.

Those conditions run with the land and bind successors, so they matter on a sale. Check for outstanding restocking obligations when buying woodland, because the liability transfers with the title and the Commission will pursue the current owner.

Where the restocking is also doing work for biodiversity net gain or for a landscape scheme, the specification should be written once and used by both. A Landscape Strategy that contradicts the restocking condition creates an obligation nobody can satisfy.

Enforcement and restocking notices

Felling without a licence where none of the exemptions apply is a criminal offence, and the Forestry Commission can prosecute. The more common outcome is a restocking notice requiring the owner to replant the area and maintain the trees, followed by an enforcement notice if the restocking notice is not complied with.

There is no way to regularise illegal felling retrospectively, which is the difference from planning enforcement. The tree is gone and the remedy is replacement.

Two pieces of practical advice. Get a tree survey done before any clearance on a site with mature trees, so the protected status of each one is on record. And where volumes are close to the exemption, apply for a licence anyway, because the cost of an application is trivial against the cost of a prosecution and a decade of restocking.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority, the Forestry Commission or a qualified arboriculturist before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.