Local Authority Chief Executives in England

HIGH HEDGES

I am writing to inform you that Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, which gives district and unitary authorities, the City of London and London Boroughs powers to deal with complaints about high hedges, will come into operation in England on 1 June 2005.

From this date, provided they have tried and exhausted all other avenues for resolving their hedge dispute, people will be able to take their complaint to their local authority. The role of the authority is not to mediate or negotiate between the complainant and the hedge owner but to adjudicate on whether - in the words of the Act - the hedge is adversely affecting the complainant's reasonable enjoyment of their property. In doing so, the authority must take account of all relevant factors and must strike a balance between the competing interests of the complainant and hedge owner, as well as the interests of the wider community.

If they consider the circumstances justify it, the local authority would issue a formal notice to the hedge owner which would set out what they must do to the hedge to remedy the problem, and when by. Failure to carry out the works required by the authority is an offence which, on prosecution, could lead to a fine of up to £1,000. The authority also have the power to carry out the required works in default of the hedge owner and recover their costs.

To bring the high hedges provisions into operation, we have introduced the following secondary legislation:

  • Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (Commencement No. 5) (England) Order 2005 [SI number 710] - which brings all of Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 into effect.
  • The High Hedges (Appeals) (England) Regulations 2005 [SI number 711] - which establish the grounds on which complainants and hedge owners can appeal against local authorities' decisions under the legislation, and the procedure for determining appeals.
  • The Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2005 [SI number 714] - which specify that decisions relating to high hedges complaints cannot be taken by local authority executives.

The Act and these Statutory Instruments are available on the HMSO website at

We have not exercised our powers under section 68 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 to prescribe in regulations the maximum fee that local authorities can charge for dealing with high hedges complaints. Under the Act, any such fee must be paid by the complainant. As a result of our decision, local authorities in England will be free to decide whether, and at what level, it is appropriate to charge for this service, taking account of local circumstances and local taxpayers' wishes. Should they so wish, authorities may provide this service for free, or charge different amounts to different groups of people. This is in line with the Government's general policy of allowing such decisions to be made at the local level.

Local authorities will need, therefore, to draw up their own charging schemes. It is good practice for authorities to publish details of their local fees scheme so that it is clear to people what the cost of making a complaint will be.

The full Regulatory Impact Assessment, published alongside the regulations listed above, includes an estimate of what it might cost a local authority, on average, to deal with a high hedge complaint. It also contains, as an Annex, a summary of the responses to last year’s consultation on how the high hedges legislation should be implemented in England.

The start date of 1 June has been chosen to give local authorities time to decide what they will charge for adjudicating on these disputes and to ensure that staff are fully trained. To support authorities as they prepare to take on this new responsibility, we will publish detailed guidance on administering complaints and enforcing any action that hedge owners may be required to take to remedy the problems caused by the hedge. Copies will be distributed to all local authorities as soon as it is available. This should be within the next few weeks. In the meantime, we have placed on the ODPM website a sample complaints form, with guidance notes on its completion, which authorities might wish to adapt.

We also plan to hold, during May, free regional workshops to provide training for local authority officers. We will be sending out invitations shortly. Places will be restricted to a maximum of 2 people from each authority.

For the public, we are publishing two free explanatory leaflets. I enclose copies of both. 'Over the garden hedge' is a revision of the previous leaflet of this name and offers advice on how people can settle these disputes for themselves. Negotiation is a necessary precursor to submitting a formal complaint to a local authority. Authorities can reject a complaint if they consider the complainant has not done everything they reasonably could to settle the matter themselves. The second leaflet 'High hedges: complaining to the Council' explains what complaints local authorities can consider and how they will deal with them.

Further copies of the leaflets can be obtained from ODPM Free Literature at Wetherby (contact details are on the back cover). They can also be downloaded from our website at

Finally, the Regulatory Impact Assessment indicates that we intend to review how the high hedges legislation is working after 5 years. This timescale has been selected so that it is possible to assess whether the predicted decline in new high hedge complaints, after the outstanding cases have been resolved, has happened. Such a review will include a survey of local authorities.

To inform the review process, therefore, authorities are advised to maintain records of complaints and their outcome. In particular, it would be helpful if, for each year of operation, the following information were kept:

  • Numbers of enquiries about the legislation;
  • Numbers of formal complaints received;
  • Number determined;
  • Number of remedial notices issued;
  • Number of decisions appealed to the Planning Inspectorate;
  • Number of complaints about failure to comply with the requirements of a remedial notice (enforcement cases);
  • Number resolved informally;
  • Number of prosecutions and outcome;
  • Number of occasions that the authority used its default powers to carry out works to the hedge.

If your officers have any queries about the high hedges legislation and how it should work, please in the first instance look at our web pages at You will find here all the documents mentioned above. Alternatively, please email us at .

Yours faithfully,

Julie Richardson