Most Tree Work in Britain Is Done Badly. Almost Nobody Notices.
That sounds harsh, but here’s the thing — you’d never know. The damage doesn’t show for years. Nobody checks whether a tree surgeon is any good. And unless you know what to look for, a bad job and a good job look the same when the van drives off.
We started Fine Pruning to change that where we work. This page explains what we believe, what we won’t do, and how to check whether any tree surgeon is worth hiring. Including us.
We started Fine Pruning to change that where we work. This page explains what we believe, what we won’t do, and how to check whether any tree surgeon is worth hiring. Including us.
The Damage Isn't How Much You Cut. It's Where.
Cut a branch back to a growth point — where a smaller branch is already growing — and that branch takes over. The tree seals the wound and carries on.
Cut anywhere else and there’s nothing to take over. What follows isn’t recovery, it’s panic: a mass of fast, weak shoots burning through energy the tree stored for years, while decay gets into a wound it can’t close.
Two years on it looks fuller than before. That isn’t thriving. That’s a tree in trouble.
A pollard does this deliberately
— right species, planned cycle, centuries
of practice behind it. The problem
is a reduction that does the same thing
by accident, and still gets invoiced
as a reduction.
Conifers are the exception.
They don’t shoot from old wood, so bringing the height down doesn’t set any of this off. Routine on a hedge. A completely different job on an oak. Anyone who treats every tree the same is telling you how much they know.
Cut anywhere else and there’s nothing to take over. What follows isn’t recovery, it’s panic: a mass of fast, weak shoots burning through energy the tree stored for years, while decay gets into a wound it can’t close.
Two years on it looks fuller than before. That isn’t thriving. That’s a tree in trouble.
A pollard does this deliberately
— right species, planned cycle, centuries
of practice behind it. The problem
is a reduction that does the same thing
by accident, and still gets invoiced
as a reduction.
Conifers are the exception.
They don’t shoot from old wood, so bringing the height down doesn’t set any of this off. Routine on a hedge. A completely different job on an oak. Anyone who treats every tree the same is telling you how much they know.
3 Things a Bad Job Costs You
You Pay Again, and Again
All that stress regrowth needs cutting back within a year or two. Then again. A proper reduction lasts three to five years. Over ten years, the cheap job costs you more.
The Tree Becomes a Risk
Those weak new branches sit on a rotting frame. That’s what comes down in a storm — onto a roof, a car, a fence. And if your tree damages something, that’s your problem, not the tree surgeon’s.
Your Garden Is Worth Less
A big, well-shaped tree takes decades to grow. You can’t buy one. Ruin it and you’re waiting decades for it to look right again — if it ever does.
How Did It Get Like This?
Nobody Checks
In the UK, anyone can buy a chainsaw, put a name on a van and start work tomorrow. There’s no licence. No test. Nothing to pass.
The Bad Way Is Quicker
Cutting to convenient points takes far less time and skill than finding the right ones. So it’s cheaper to sell, and you can fit more jobs into a week.
You Can't Tell the Difference
On the day, both jobs just look like a smaller tree. The difference shows up two years later, when the bill has long been paid.
The Word "Reduction" Means Nothing Legally
So a pollard-style cut gets sold as a crown reduction. Sometimes by people who honestly believe that’s what they did.
The Fix Is Simple: More People
Knowing What to Look For
5 Things You can hold us to
You'll Hear the Downside Before You Decide.
If what you’re asking for will shorten your tree’s life, we’ll tell you plainly — what happens, when it starts to show, and what it costs you to put right later. Then we’ll recommend against it.
If you still want to go ahead knowing all of that, it’s your tree and your call. What we won’t do is take the booking and stay quiet.
If you still want to go ahead knowing all of that, it’s your tree and your call. What we won’t do is take the booking and stay quiet.
If Your Tree Doesn't Need Anything, We'll Say So
Sometimes the honest answer is that it’s healthy and best left alone for a few more years. You’ll get that answer, and no bill.
We'll Tell You to Wait If Waiting Is Better.
Most trees cope best with work done in winter, when they’re resting. If it’s July and January would suit your tree better, we’ll say so — and lose the booking.
We'll Explain Before
We Price.
You’ll see where every cut would go, and why, before anyone mentions a price — and if you’d rather it was done differently, we’ll change the plan there and then.
The Price Won't Change.
Whatever the written quote says is what the bill says.
6 Questions
to Ask Any Tree Surgeon.
Ours Included.
"What qualifications have you got?"
You’re looking for NPTC and City & Guilds — the two proper tree surgery certificates in the UK.
Ask to see them. A good company will have them ready.
Ask to see them. A good company will have them ready.
"Can I see your insurance?"
Two kinds matter: public liability, which covers damage to your property, and employer’s liability, which covers their team. Ask how much they’re covered for. Anyone climbing over your house should know that off the top of their head.
"Where exactly will you cut?"
This is the one that sorts them out. Someone who knows their job will point at specific spots on your specific tree. „We’ll take a bit off the top” is not an answer.
"How much will it grow back, and how fast?"
Done properly, it grows back at its normal rate. If they tell you it’ll come back thicker and bushier, they’re describing a pollard — whatever they’re calling it.
"Have you checked if the tree is protected?"
Some trees have a TPO — a Tree Preservation Order — and some areas are conservation areas. Cut without permission and the fine reaches £20,000, and it falls on both of you: the owner and the contractor. A good company checks the register before any date for the work is agreed — not after.
"Who clears up?"
Clearing everything away should be included, not extra. Ask where it all goes.
If a company struggles with these, that tells you plenty. If we struggle with them, the same goes for us.
If a company struggles with these, that tells you plenty. If we struggle with them, the same goes for us.
There's No Such Thing as a Bad Decision. Only an Uninformed One.
Everything on this page comes down to one thing.
It’s your tree. We’re not going to tell you what to do with it, and we’ve never thought that was our job.
What is our job is making sure you know what happens next. Reduce it this much and here’s how it looks in three years. Take that limb off and here’s what the tree does in response.
Leave it another season and here’s what changes.
Then you decide, with all of it in front of you.
Some people go ahead. Some wait. Some decide the tree was fine as it was. All three are good decisions, as long as they’re made knowing what follows.
That’s the whole reason we wrote this page.
It’s your tree. We’re not going to tell you what to do with it, and we’ve never thought that was our job.
What is our job is making sure you know what happens next. Reduce it this much and here’s how it looks in three years. Take that limb off and here’s what the tree does in response.
Leave it another season and here’s what changes.
Then you decide, with all of it in front of you.
Some people go ahead. Some wait. Some decide the tree was fine as it was. All three are good decisions, as long as they’re made knowing what follows.
That’s the whole reason we wrote this page.
The Plan Is Simple: Tell People More
We can’t change the rules. What we can do is make bad work harder to sell to someone who knows better.
So we’re writing it all down.
What each kind of tree needs and when.
How to spot ash dieback — a disease killing most of Britain’s ash trees — before it becomes a felling job.
What a TPO actually means for you.
What tree work costs and why the prices vary so much.
How to tell a healthy tree from one that’s quietly dying.
All free. All in plain English. None of it needs you to hire us. If enough people around Surrey, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire know what a proper job looks like, the standard here has to go up. That’s the whole plan.
So we’re writing it all down.
What each kind of tree needs and when.
How to spot ash dieback — a disease killing most of Britain’s ash trees — before it becomes a felling job.
What a TPO actually means for you.
What tree work costs and why the prices vary so much.
How to tell a healthy tree from one that’s quietly dying.
All free. All in plain English. None of it needs you to hire us. If enough people around Surrey, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire know what a proper job looks like, the standard here has to go up. That’s the whole plan.
If This Sounds Like the Company You'd Want in Your Garden
Book a free visit. You’ll get an honest answer about what your trees need
— including, sometimes, that they don’t need anything.
— including, sometimes, that they don’t need anything.