Pricing
Tree removal cost guide
Here is what the market data says a tree of your size costs to take down, what a tree surgeon charges for a day, and what really decides where in that range your own job lands.
What tree removal costs, by size
Pick what you have and we will start you off at a likely size, then show you what the market data says a tree that big costs to take down.
- Min/max market prices
- Popular prices
How we arrived at those figures
We examined the published UK market data for tree removal in August 2026, read it across every dataset that covers a given size, and report two numbers rather than one.
The full market range
The lowest published figure and the highest, across everything we looked at. It is deliberately wide, because that is what the market actually looks like.
Where the data converges
The tighter band that every dataset agrees on. Where that band exists it is the most useful number on the page. On larger trees it does not exist at all.
Nothing averaged, nothing invented
We do not blend the figures into a single headline number or interpolate between brackets. Both figures are read straight off published data, and every source is cited below.
Checked, and dated
Market data examined August 2026. Where a dataset carries its own update date we record it in the citations. We re-read the market rather than quoting a figure we cached a year ago.
Why the cost of cutting down a tree varies so much
On a small tree the market lands in a tight band, roughly £240 to £340. On a tree of fifty to seventy-five feet the published data runs from £650 to £2,450 and never converges at all. That is not noise. It is the most useful fact on this page.
A national figure has to average across every garden in the country: the paddock you can drive into and the terrace where every piece comes out through the house. Once a tree is big enough for that to matter, size stops being able to predict the price on its own. What takes over is access, and that is the next section.
Can we get to it?
Height gets you in the right area. Access decides where in that range you land, and it moves a price further than anything else on this page. The same tree is three different jobs.
The truck gets to the tree
Open ground, a drive or a paddock. The chipper sits under the tree, brash goes straight in, and big sections can come down whole. This is the cheapest version of any job, and it is the one the published averages are built on.
Everything goes through a side gate
Back garden, one way in, usually a gap under a metre. The chipper stays on the drive and every piece of the tree is carried or barrowed to it. A garden gate the machine fits through is worth real money. One that it does not adds hours to the same tree.
It has to be rigged down over something
A conservatory, a greenhouse, a neighbour's roof, a road. Nothing is dropped. Every piece is roped, lowered and controlled, and the work slows to the pace of the thing underneath it. Rigging over a conservatory takes longer than dropping into a paddock. Sometimes it needs a MEWP, and once in a while a crane.
What moves the price on a tree job
Tick anything that is true of yours. It goes on the quote request, and it means the number we come back with is based on the job you actually have.
The number we quote is the number you pay
Every figure on this page is before VAT. That is how the market data is published, and most quotes you collect will have it added at the end.
We are not VAT registered, so nothing gets added to ours. On a mature oak at the published £1,430, that is about £286 you do not pay.
What a tree surgeon costs per day
Tree surgeon cost is usually quoted per job rather than per hour, because the hour is not the thing you are buying. It is still worth knowing the day rate, and what the market pays for the parts of the job.
| What | Market range |
|---|---|
| A tree surgeon, per day | £180 to £400 |
| Per day with a groundsman or two | £350 to £500 |
| Per hour | £25 to £50 |
| Stump grinding | £60 to £710 |
| Waste taken away | £90 to £800 |
| Crown reduction | £250 to £1,080 |
| Arboricultural survey | £300 to £600 |
By species, where the data breaks it out
Most of the market prices by size alone. Where the data does separate species, these are the figures for a mature specimen.
| Species | Market range |
|---|---|
| English oak | £2,800 to £4,800 |
| Sycamore | £900 to £3,400 |
| Common beech | £1,200 to £2,500 |
| Horse chestnut | £800 to £2,000 |
| Ash | £600 to £1,500 |
| Conifer or leylandii | £250 to £1,500 |
| Pine | £600 to £700 |
A tree over a conservatory and the same tree in an open paddock are different jobs at the same height. These are national averages, not quotes.
What this guide is built on
Market pricing is one input of four. The standards decide how the work is done, the law decides what is allowed, and the tree itself decides most of the rest. Everything we read is listed here.
The market data
Three national datasets on UK tree work pricing, read across rather than one quoted selectively. Each is gathered differently, which is much of why the range is as wide as it is.
- MyJobQuote. Built from quotes given by tradespeople to homeowners on its own platform. Tree removal data last updated 24 June 2026.
- Checkatrade. Ballpark averages, by its own description. Tree removal data last updated June 2026.
- MyBuilder. Market averages by job type. Tree surgeon data read August 2026.
How the work is done
Standards, not opinion. They govern where a cut is made and how much comes off in one visit.
- BS 3998:2010, Tree work: recommendations. The British Standard every reduction, thin and fell we do is worked to.
- The Arboricultural Association. The UK trade body for arborists, and the source of the industry guidance behind most of the above.
What the law allows
Read from the statute rather than from other people's summaries of it.
- Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Sections 210 and 211 for protected trees and conservation areas, section 206 for replanting.
- LASPO 2012, section 85. Removed the cap on magistrates' court fines in England and Wales on 12 March 2015.
- Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Makes it an offence to damage an active nest, which is why tree and hedge work pauses roughly March to August.
- Forestry Act 1967. Felling licences, and the volume and diameter exemptions that mean most garden trees need none.
The trees themselves
Timing, species behaviour and disease, which decide the method more often than the size does.
- The Royal Horticultural Society. Pruning windows by species, which also drive our care calendar.
- The Woodland Trust. Species identification, growth habit and ash dieback.
Most of the pricing data we read repeats the same legal figure: that working on a protected tree without consent can cost you a fine of up to £20,000 in a magistrates' court. That cap was removed in England and Wales on 12 March 2015, when section 85 of the LASPO Act made any specified fine of £5,000 or more unlimited.
The fine is unlimited, in either court, and the court must also take account of any financial benefit gained from the work. It is the sort of thing worth having right before anyone starts cutting, which is why the legal figures on this site come from the statute rather than from somebody else's summary of it.
Every job, quoted on its own facts
We come and look, usually within a few days, at no charge. We agree exactly what you want done. Then you get a fixed written quote, normally within two working days, and it does not change once you have it. No menu, no hard sell, no surprises on the day.
Want a number for your job?
Send us the details or give us a call. We come and look for free, and put an honest written quote in front of you.