Tree Risk Management Surveys
Urban Tree Management is a completely independent arboricultural consultancy with no connection to any tree surgery contractor or construction company.
Every recommendation we make is based entirely on arboricultural merit — giving our clients the confidence that the advice they receive is always impartial and defensible.
We provide tree risk management surveys, management plans and cyclical inspection programmes across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, and the wider North West — carried out by Level 6 qualified, MArborA, QTRA licensed, and Enhanced DBS checked consultants. Our clients include L&Q, Places for People, Riverside Housing, BUPA Care Homes, Blackpool Council, and Liverpool John Moores University.
This page covers tree risk management systems, policies, and strategy. For a one-off tree inspection or QTRA assessment, see our Tree Inspection & Risk Assessment page. For ongoing tree stock management programmes and budgeting, see our Arboricultural Management page.
Your Duty of Care
Every landowner has a legal duty of care to ensure trees on their land do not pose an unacceptable risk. A professionally documented, regularly reviewed inspection programme is the most effective way to meet this obligation — producing the audit trail of inspection, assessment, and action that your insurers, governance teams, and legal advisors require.
How We Work
All tree risk surveys carried out by Urban Tree Management follow the Visual Tree Assessment methodology — the industry standard approach for assessing tree condition and structural integrity from ground level. Every tree is inspected for signs of structural weakness, decay, disease, and instability, with the crown, stem, root zone, and surrounding environment all assessed as part of a systematic, structured inspection process.
Where trees present elevated risk we apply
QTRA — Quantified Tree Risk Assessment, evaluating the probability of failure, the probability of impact, target occupancy, and the consequences of failure to produce a quantified risk figure that can be compared against established tolerance thresholds. As Licensed QTRA Users we can demonstrate objectively whether a tree's risk level is tolerable, broadly tolerable, or intolerable — providing the defensible, evidence-based risk ratings that clients, insurers, and legal advisors require.
Why the Assessment Matters More Than the Method
QTRA is a method of risk evaluation. Several such methods exist and they do broadly the same job — providing a structured way of expressing risk using the probability of failure, the size of the part concerned, and the usage of the target.
What determines whether the resulting figure means anything is the assessment it is applied to. Correctly reading the defect, judging how likely failure actually is, and understanding what decay or structural weakness genuinely signifies — that is arboricultural judgement, and it rests on competence and experience rather than on the method or the software.
Our assessments are carried out by a Level 6 qualified arboriculturist, MArborA, with over sixteen years in practice and specialist diagnostic equipment held in-house. The quantified output is the reporting format. The judgement behind it is the substance.
Do You Need a Tree Risk Management Policy?
For housing associations, local authorities, schools, and commercial estates, a documented Tree Risk Management Policy is increasingly important for governance and insurance purposes. We can advise on whether a formal policy is appropriate for your organisation and help you develop one that is proportionate and practical — without unnecessary complexity.
Tree Risk Management Plans
Where an organisation needs the system above the surveys, we produce a Tree Risk Management Plan — a single site-specific document setting out how tree risk is managed across your estate.
A plan typically covers:
- The policy statement — your organisation's approach and the standard it holds itself to
- Roles and responsibilities — who the duty holder is, who commissions inspections, who acts on findings, who holds the records
- Zoning — the estate divided by occupancy and consequence, with mapping
- Inspection regime — method, interval and required competence for each zone
- Recording and data standards
- Escalation procedure and timescales for urgent findings
- Reactive procedure following storms, failures, or reports from the public
- Review cycle for the plan itself
The plan is the document produced when something goes wrong. Its purpose is to demonstrate that a system existed, was reasonable, and was followed.
When Specialist Investigation is Required
Where visual assessment identifies signs of potential internal decay, Urban Tree Management deploys Arbotom sonic tomography and Rinntech Resistograph R650 resistance drilling to provide objective, measurable evidence of a tree's internal condition — enabling precise, evidence-based management recommendations rather than precautionary removal. See our specialist decay detection pages for full details.
Systematic Data Across Every Site
Proportionate tree risk management depends on knowing where to concentrate effort. Inspection should be weighted towards the areas where people actually are — but applying that consistently across a large or multi-site portfolio is difficult with a clipboard alone.
We record every survey in CanopyQ, our own purpose-built survey system, developed in-house. Data is captured on site rather than transcribed from notes, records stay consistent between sites and between visits so change can be measured properly at reinspection, and tree locations are GPS-referenced with photographs geotagged and time-stamped as they are taken.
For risk management instructions the system can also record occupancy zoning alongside the tree data, so inspection frequency is set by zone and the rationale is captured as part of the survey rather than reconstructed afterwards. That gives an estate manager a documented justification for why lower-occupancy areas are inspected less often, consistent recording across the whole portfolio, and reinspection dates tracked rather than relying on someone remembering.
Because the system is ours, it can be configured to your existing risk policy, your zone definitions and your reporting format — rather than requiring you to adopt ours.
FAQ
Am I legally required to have my trees inspected?
There is no statute specifying an inspection interval. The duty arises under the Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 and 1984, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for commercial premises, and common law negligence. The requirement is to take reasonable and proportionate steps to manage foreseeable risk — and regular inspection by a competent person, properly recorded, is the accepted way of demonstrating that.
How often should trees be inspected?
The National Tree Safety Group advises a proportionate approach. High-use areas such as those near roads, footpaths, car parks and play areas warrant regular inspection, commonly every one to three years. Low-use areas such as woodland or private gardens justify less frequent inspection unless concerns arise. The interval should be set as a recorded professional judgement with reasons, not adopted as a default.
Who is responsible for tree safety?
Landowners have a legal duty of care under the Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 and 1984 to manage tree risks on their property. Local authorities also have responsibilities for trees on public land and highways. Where land is leased, duties may fall on both owner and occupier, and how responsibility is allocated is a matter for the lease.
What is a Tree Risk Management Plan?
A single site-specific document setting out how tree risk is managed across an estate — the policy, roles and responsibilities, zoning, inspection regime, recording standards, escalation procedure and review cycle. It demonstrates that a system existed and was followed, rather than that individual trees happened to be looked at.
Can you make sure my trees are safe?
Trees should not be thought of as either safe or unsafe — all trees carry some degree of risk of failure. Compared with many everyday activities that risk is very small. Work commissioned by the National Tree Safety Group benchmarked the average individual fatality risk from a falling tree to the UK public between 1997 and 2021 at one in 14 million per year, somewhere between death by lightning and being bitten by a shark.
Tree Risk Management & Safety Surveys — Estates, Schools & Portfolios Nationwide
Urban Tree Management designs and delivers tree risk management systems for estates, schools, local authorities, and commercial portfolios — risk policy, zoning plans, cyclical survey programmes, and mitigation planning to the HSE Plan Do Check Act methodology and NTSG best practice. From a single garden tree to estates with tens of thousands of trees, we ensure legal compliance under the Occupiers' Liability Acts while balancing safety, sustainability, and long-term tree health. Independent, QTRA licensed, completely independent from any tree surgery contractor.
Get in contact with our highly experienced and personable team of arboricultural consultants today, to discuss your requirements and to obtain your zero obligation quotation.
