Tree surgery prices vary more than almost any other domestic trade, because the job is priced on risk and access rather than on hours.
The headline figures
MyJobQuote's June 2026 guide puts the overall average at around £500, with removal by tree size at £150 to £350 for small trees under 25ft, £400 to £700 for medium trees of 25 to 50ft, £650 to £1,200 for large trees of 50 to 75ft, and £1,200 to £4,800 and above for anything over 75ft.
Minimum call-out is £150 to £250. That is worth knowing before you ring anyone about a single small branch.
Other common jobs: stump grinding £60 to £400, crown reduction £400 to £900, pruning £400 to £500, hedge trimming from around £70 for a small hedge, and green waste removal £90 to £500.
Why quotes for the same tree differ so much
Three factors dominate, and none of them is the tree's height.
Access. A tree in an open front garden that can be felled in one piece is a fraction of the cost of the same tree in a rear garden reachable only through the house. Where there is no access for a chipper or a truck, everything comes out by hand through your hallway, and that is hours of labour.
Proximity to structures. A tree that can be dropped whole is cheap. A tree overhanging a roof, a conservatory, a neighbour's garden or a railway line has to be dismantled in sections, each piece roped and lowered under control. Sectional dismantling can triple the price of an otherwise identical tree.
Waste. A large tree produces an astonishing volume of material. Whether it is chipped on site, taken away, or left stacked for you makes a real difference to the number.
Species matters more than people expect
MyJobQuote's species breakdown shows the spread: English oak £2,800 to £4,800, common beech £1,200 to £2,500, sycamore £900 to £3,400, horse chestnut £800 to £2,000, ash £600 to £1,500, conifer £250 to £1,500.
Dense hardwoods are slower to cut, heavier to handle and produce more waste per metre of trunk. An oak and a conifer of the same height are not remotely the same job.
The London premium
MyJobQuote puts the London uplift at £50 to £100 a day on labour. In practice the gap is wider than that on awkward jobs, because South London's terraced streets create the access problems described above far more often than a suburb with driveways and side gates.
Parking is a real cost too. A tree crew needs space for a truck and a chipper, and in controlled parking zones that means suspending bays, which the council charges for and which takes days to arrange.
Getting comparable quotes
Insist on site visits. A price given over the phone from a photograph is a guess, and the number will change on the day.
Ask each quote to state explicitly: whether stump removal is included, whether waste is taken away, whether the price includes any permit or bay suspension, and whether the tree is being dismantled or felled whole. Two quotes £600 apart usually differ on those four points rather than on the labour rate.