How much does hedge cutting cost in Teesside?

£45 to £75 for a small front hedge, £90 to £160 for a typical boundary run under two metres, and £180 to £400 for tall leylandii where height access and heavy waste are involved.

When can hedges be cut legally?

At any time, provided no active nest is disturbed. Because birds nest between March and August, the main cut is usually taken from late August onwards, and spring work is checked first.

How far back can leylandii be cut?

Only into green growth. Leylandii does not reshoot from bare brown wood, so a reduction has to leave foliage on the branch. Cutting into the brown leaves a face that never recovers.

Can I cut my neighbour's hedge where it overhangs?

You may trim back to the boundary line, but the cuttings belong to the hedge owner and should be offered back. Talking to them first avoids most of the trouble that follows.

Do you take the clippings away?

Yes, or they can be bagged and left if you would rather use your own green bin. Removal is priced separately because tipping green waste is a genuine cost.

Hedge cutting and trimming in Teesside

Boundary hedges cut back to a clean line and height, with clippings collected and removed, from £45 for a small hedge. Leylandii reductions, privet, laurel and beech are all routine work, and the nesting-season rules are checked before any spring or summer cut.

Get Quote Call 01642 030 448 From £45 a hedge

Tall privet hedge freshly trimmed square with clippings collected on a sheet below

What sets the price

Three things decide a hedge price: length, height and what happens to the arisings. Length is simple. Height is not, because anything above about 2.5 metres needs platforms or poles, slows the work down and turns a one-person job into a two-person one. Waste is the third, and on a mature leylandii run it is the biggest single cost, since a 15 metre reduction easily fills a van twice.

Typical Teesside hedge cutting prices (2026)
Hedge	Guide price	Notes
Small front privet, under 5m	£45 to £75	Sides and top, clippings removed
Boundary hedge 10 to 15m, up to 2m high	£90 to £160	Single visit, one operative
Tall leylandii run, over 3m	£180 to £400	Two operatives, height access, heavy waste
Full day, two-person team	£280 to £420	Several hedges or a large boundary

Nesting season is a legal matter, not a preference

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to intentionally damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while it is in use or being built. The main nesting season runs from March to August, and hedges are where a great many birds nest. That does not ban hedge cutting outright, but it does mean the hedge must be checked properly first and the work stopped if an active nest is found.

In practice this shapes the local calendar. Formal hedges get their main cut from late August into autumn, deciduous hedges are often cut again in winter while dormant, and spring work is limited to light, checked trimming. Anyone who agrees to blast through a leylandii run in May without looking at it first is taking a risk with your boundary and your name on the complaint.

Species and how they respond

Leylandii: fast, dense and unforgiving. It will not reshoot from bare brown wood, so a reduction has to stop while green growth remains. Cutting too hard leaves a permanent brown face.
Privet: tolerant of hard pruning and quick to recover, which is why it survives on so many older Teesside front gardens. Two cuts a year keep it crisp.
Laurel: large leaves tear badly under a hedge trimmer, so a good finish means secateurs or loppers on the visible faces, which takes longer.
Beech and hornbeam: one late-summer cut holds the shape and keeps the copper leaves through winter. Cut too early and it pushes soft regrowth.
Hawthorn and mixed native: robust, thorny and best cut in winter, when nesting is over and the structure is visible.

Height, light and the neighbour question

High hedge disputes are common wherever 1970s leylandii planting met small estate gardens, and Teesside has plenty of both. Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 lets a council consider a complaint about an evergreen hedge over two metres that blocks light, but only once the neighbours have genuinely tried to settle it themselves, and councils charge a fee to consider a case. Cutting a shared boundary hedge back to a reasonable height before it becomes a formal complaint is cheaper for everyone.

You may trim branches that overhang your boundary back to the line, but the cuttings legally belong to the hedge owner, and they should be offered back rather than thrown over. It is worth having the conversation before booking, not after.

Coastal and exposed sites

Hedges at Redcar, Marske, Seaton Carew and along the Saltburn cliff top take salt-laden wind, which scorches soft new growth on the seaward face. Griselinia, escallonia, hawthorn and blackthorn cope with it. Beech and leylandii tend to look tatty on the exposed side however well they are cut, and no amount of trimming fixes a species that is wrong for the position.

Waste and finish

Clippings are collected onto sheets, loaded and removed by a registered waste carrier, or bagged and left if you would rather use your own green bin over the following weeks. The finish should be square, with sides tapered very slightly inwards towards the top so light reaches the base and the hedge stays green all the way down. Hedges cut with vertical or flared sides thin out at the bottom within a few years, which is the most common reason an old hedge looks bare underneath. Larger hedge jobs pair naturally with a clearance or a tidy-up in the same visit.