Tree Surveys in Birmingham: the reports you need

Birmingham, often referred to as the UK’s second city, is a dynamic and evolving urban centre that combines industrial heritage with a growing focus on green infrastructure. Spanning a diverse landscape from dense city districts to leafy suburbs, Birmingham has made significant efforts to enhance and maintain its urban greenery. With over one million trees across its parks, streets, private gardens and public open spaces, the city is recognised as one of the greenest metropolitan areas in the country. As a result, tree surveys are a key requirement for developers, homeowners, and land managers alike when considering planning applications on land that could affect existing trees.

Legal obligations and potential issues surrounding trees

Birmingham is home to more than 600 parks and open spaces, including Lickey Hills Country Park, Cannon Hill Park, and the extensive Sutton Park, one of the largest urban parks in Europe. Trees in the city play an important role in reducing pollution, enhancing biodiversity, supporting public health and contributing to the city’s net-zero targets. These benefits mean that the protection and management of trees is taken seriously by Birmingham City Council, which enforces legal safeguards through Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) and the designation of conservation areas. If you are planning development in the city, it is essential to establish whether trees on or near the site are protected under these rules, as failure to comply with tree legislation can result in enforcement action, financial penalties, and project delays.

Managing trees alongside development: the importance of tree surveys

As the Birmingham area continues to attract regeneration schemes and private development projects, the need to balance growth with environmental stewardship becomes more urgent. Mature and high-value trees can present challenges for developers, particularly where trees occupy a development site earmarked for construction or where root zones overlap with new foundations. However, rather than viewing trees as obstacles, professional tree surveys help to identify practical solutions that allow planning applications to proceed while maintaining environmental standards. Trees protected by Tree Preservation Orders or located within conservation areas require consent from the local authority before any works can be carried out on them, including pruning, felling, or even excavation near their roots. A professional tree survey report in Birmingham is the first step in managing these responsibilities.

Tree Surveys and Reports

The most common type of tree survey required during the planning process is a BS5837 tree survey. These tree surveys are conducted in line with the British Standard for trees in relation to design, demolition and construction. Arboricultural consultants will visit the development site and record detailed information on the species, size, health, condition and value of each tree on or adjacent to the site, taking any tree protection orders into account. Each tree is categorised according to a grading system that assesses its quality and long-term viability. Tree surveyors will use this data to create a Tree Constraints Plan which will inform how the development site should be designed to avoid or minimise negative impacts on retained trees.

Tree retention is always the preferred option, and the BS5837 process ensures that important specimens are factored into early planning layouts, rather than being treated as an afterthought in the development process. If a tree must be removed, arboricultural consultants will justify this decision within the tree report and recommend suitable mitigation, such as replacement planting.

Provide the Correct Information with Expert Tree Surveys

Where necessary, further information will be required: additional documents may need to be prepared to support planning applications. The main two ways of dealing with this are by obtaining an Arboricultural Impact Assessment, which assesses how construction activities could affect trees, or an Arboricultural Method Statement, which sets out the methods to be used to protect trees during each stage of the development process.

A Tree Protection Plan may also be required to show how fencing, root protection areas, and access routes will be managed on a development site. These supplementary documents are often requested by Birmingham City Council as part of its validation checklist for planning applications, particularly when significant trees or tree groups are involved. Together, these tree surveys and reports form a comprehensive arboricultural package that gives planning officers confidence that trees will be protected in accordance with national and local policy.

Tree Risk Surveys

Beyond planning applications, tree surveys in Birmingham and the West Midlands may also be commissioned to assess potential issues with tree safety and public liability risks, particularly on school grounds, commercial premises or public housing estates. Tree condition is assessed during tree surveys to calculate the health and structural integrity of individual trees, identifying signs of decay, disease or structural weakness that may pose a risk to people or property. In a city where heavy footfall, urban heat, and storm events are increasing, these tree surveys play a vital role in keeping residents and infrastructure safe.

Engage an expert team of arboricultural consultants

Booking a tree survey report in the Birmingham area with a qualified consultant ensures that your planning applications comply with planning law and best practice. Our arboricultural consultancy employs fully qualified tree surveyors who provide tree surveys in the Birmingham area and across the West Midlands. These include British Standard BS5837 tree surveys, arboricultural reports, arboricultural impact assessments and arboricultural method statements. Our expert advice will enable you to supply the correct information to comply with legal obligations and help your project move forward to achieve planning consent.

Request a Free Quote for a Tree Survey Report

As well as tree owners, our arboricultural consultancy works closely with local planning authorities to ensure that our reports meet current planning requirements and are tailored to clients’ specific needs, reducing the risk of delays or rejections.

If you are planning a development, dealing with protected trees, or require a tree inspection for safety or insurance reasons in the Birmingham area, contact our team today for further information. We will provide a no obligation quote for tree surveys and can arrange site visits at a time that suits you.