Felling licences and the volume threshold that triggers one

The felling licence volume threshold is 5 cubic metres of timber in any calendar quarter, of which no more than 2 cubic metres may be sold. Fell more than that without a licence from the Forestry Commission and you have committed an offence under the Forestry Act 1967, whether or not the trees were protected by a Tree Preservation Order and whether or not anyone complained.

That quarterly allowance is small. Five cubic metres is a handful of mature trees, and on a farm where a hedge line is being tidied it goes quickly. The exemptions matter as much as the threshold, so work through both before the chainsaw arrives.

What a felling licence controls

The Forestry Act 1967 restricts the felling of growing trees, and the Forestry Commission administers the licensing regime in England. The control is about the trees as timber, and it exists independently of the planning system. A licence is not consent for development, and planning permission is not permission to fell.

That independence catches people out in both directions. A landowner with a Tree Preservation Order consent still needs to think about a licence if the volume is large. And a landowner with a licence cannot assume the planning position is resolved, particularly in a conservation area.

Two licence types exist in practice. A felling licence for a specific operation, and an approved woodland management plan, which can carry felling approval across a longer period and is the sensible route for anyone managing woodland as a going concern rather than as a one-off clearance.

The quarterly volume exemption and how it is measured

The exemption applies per calendar quarter, not per year and not per rolling three months. So the allowance resets on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, and felling split across a quarter boundary draws on two allowances.

Volume means the volume of timber, measured as the merchantable stem volume rather than as the total biomass, and it is the figure most owners get wrong. A single mature oak can approach or exceed the whole quarterly allowance on its own. If you are anywhere near the limit, have the volume estimated by someone who does it routinely, and keep the calculation.

The 2 cubic metre limit on sale sits inside the 5. Fell 5 cubic metres and sell 3 of it and you have breached the exemption even though the felling volume was within it. Firewood sold at the gate counts.

The other exemptions

Several categories sit outside the licensing regime entirely, and most small domestic situations fall into one of them:

• Trees in a garden, orchard, churchyard or public open space.
• Trees below a stem diameter of 8 centimetres, measured over bark at 1.3 metres above ground, with a higher threshold of 10 centimetres for thinnings and 15 centimetres for coppice and underwood.
• Fruit trees.
• Felling necessary to prevent danger or to abate a nuisance, which is narrower than it sounds and needs evidence recorded at the time.
• Felling required under a statutory obligation, or carried out by certain statutory undertakers.
• Felling necessary to implement a planning permission that has been granted, which is the exemption most development sites rely on.

That last one is worth dwelling on. It applies to felling needed to carry out development for which permission has been granted, so it does not cover clearance in advance of an application, or clearance of trees outside the area the permission affects. A site cleared before the decision notice arrives has no exemption to fall back on.

How a licence interacts with a Tree Preservation Order

Where a tree is both subject to a Tree Preservation Order and requires a felling licence, the two regimes are reconciled rather than stacked. The Forestry Commission consults the local planning authority, and where a licence is granted, separate consent under the Order is not additionally required for the felling the licence authorises.

That is not an invitation to use the licensing route to get round a protected tree. The consultation is real, the authority's objection carries weight, and the Commission applies the UK Forestry Standard in deciding. The interaction between woodland designations and licences is set out in our note on woodland orders, felling licences and how they interact.

In a conservation area, trees above a threshold size are protected by the requirement to give the authority six weeks notice of intended works under the tree provisions of the planning legislation, which gives the authority the chance to make an Order. That notice requirement is separate again from the licence.

And where the woodland is ancient, the policy position is far more restrictive and a licence is unlikely, quite apart from the development considerations covered in our piece on ancient woodland buffers on a development site.

Restocking conditions attached to a licence

A felling licence for anything other than thinning will normally carry a condition requiring restocking, and the condition is the part with the long tail.

Expect it to specify the area to be restocked, the species and stocking density, the timescale for planting, and a period, often measured in years, during which the trees have to be maintained and replaced if they fail. The obligation runs with the land, so it passes to a purchaser, and it is enforceable by notice.

Three practical points. Price the restocking and the maintenance into the felling decision, because the income from the timber rarely covers a decade of replacement planting and weeding. Agree the species mix with an eye on what will actually establish on that soil, which is a conversation with a forester rather than a catalogue exercise. And keep the planting records, because proving compliance five years later is otherwise difficult. The related discipline of writing a planting specification that survives contact with a contractor is covered in our note on tree planting conditions.

Penalties for unlicensed felling

Felling without a licence where one was required is a criminal offence. The court can impose a fine, and separately the Forestry Commission can serve a restocking notice requiring the owner to replant and maintain the area, which is often the more expensive outcome.

Ignorance of the volume is not a defence, and neither is a contractor's assurance. The duty sits with the person felling and with the owner, so a written instruction to the contractor limiting the volume, and a record of what was actually felled, are worth having.

Where felling has already happened, get advice quickly rather than waiting. A voluntary restocking proposal put forward early is treated very differently from one extracted after enforcement.

Applying, and the timescales involved

The application goes to the Forestry Commission, with a map of the area, the species, the volume, the method and the restocking proposal. The Commission consults the local planning authority and other bodies as appropriate, and applies the UK Forestry Standard.

Allow months rather than weeks. Consultation takes time, and objections extend it. If the felling is tied to a development programme, the licence application needs to run alongside the planning application rather than after it, and the tree information in the Tree Survey and Arboricultural Impact Assessment submitted with the planning application is the same information the licence application needs.

One honest uncertainty. Whether a particular operation counts as thinning or as felling, and therefore what exemption and what conditions apply, is a judgement about silvicultural intent rather than a bright line. Ask the Forestry Commission's local officer before proceeding on your own reading of it. They answer that question routinely and an early conversation is free.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with the Forestry Commission, your local planning authority or a suitably qualified forester or arboriculturist before relying on it.

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