Draft:Arbtech Consulting
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Submission declined on 4 February 2026 by DoubleGrazing (talk).
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Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Rob-Arbtech (talk) 16:34, 3 February 2026 (UTC)
| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Environmental consultancy |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Robert Oates |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people | Robert Oates (CEO) |
Number of employees | 150+ (2025) |
| Parent | Celnor Group |
| Website | arbtech |
Arbtech Consulting Ltd is a British ecological consultancy firm headquartered in Chester and office locations in Birmingham and London.
Founded in 2005, the company provides arboricultural and ecological services, primarily to support the development process and applications for planning permission.
As of 2025, the firm employs over 150 staff and completes approximately 18,000 projects annually.
Since its founding, the company has provided consultancy for more than 80,000 development projects, making it one of the largest specialists in the UK ecological consultancy market.[1]
History
[edit]Arbtech was founded in 2005. The firm initially began as an arboricultural survey specialist and has since expanded to provide nationwide ecology assessments for homeowners, property developers and government bodies. Among the services it now offers are tree surveys, biodiversity net gain plans, and protected species surveys.
In September 2024, Arbtech was acquired by the Celnor Group, a testing, inspection, certification and compliance (TICC) platform backed by private equity firm Inflexion.[2] The transaction, on which KPMG Corporate Finance acted as the lead advisor to Arbtech, was identified by analysts as a significant consolidation within the UK ecological consultancy market.[3] The acquisition was Celnor's largest at the time, integrating Arbtech as a key platform for its Built Environment division.[4]
Founding and Leadership
[edit]Founder and CEO Robert Oates built the firm from a start-up into a national consultancy while pursuing postgraduate research at the University of Oxford and Durham University.[5]
In 2024, Oates was recognized in the "42 under 42" list for the North West[6] and received the Disruptor Award at the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders awards, held in partnership with The Times.[7] Outside of business, he is a competitive combat sports athlete and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, having won gold at the IBJJF European Championships.[8]
Research and advocacy
[edit]Under the leadership of CEO Robert Oates, the consultancy is an active participant in UK environmental policy debate and industry standard-setting.
Primary examples include:
- Economic Analysis: In 2025, Arbtech published an economic analysis estimating that the UK's Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy could deliver £12.3 billion in net value over ten years through health, recreational, and environmental benefits.[9]
- Policy opposition: Arbtech has been a vocal opponent of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (2025). In a report titled The Green Faultline, the firm argued that the proposed "Nature Restoration Fund" - a levy-based system allowing developers to pay to bypass site-specific surveys – could cause local extinctions of site-faithful species like bats and barn owls, and argued that the reduction in site-specific surveys would lead to job displacement and a decline in technical skill requirements within the sector.
- Parliamentary engagement: In 2025, the company submitted written evidence (ESH0094) to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC). The evidence detailed structural flaws in proposed environmental policies and advocated for the accreditation of private-sector consultants.[10]
- Public research: In 2025, the company commissioned the British Wildlife Insights 2025 Report, a study of 2,000 UK adults. The findings, which were reported by the Liverpool Echo, highlighted that 88% of respondents were concerned about wildlife decline, yet only 40% maintained wildlife-friendly gardens, indicating a significant "concern-action gap" in UK conservation.[11]
Corporate culture
[edit]Arbtech is recognised for promoting a non-traditional, “people-first” management philosophy and was named in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work list in 2024[12] and 2025.[13]
The firm's high-trust model, which includes an absence of internal timesheets and a "Cheers Mate" peer-to-peer reward scheme, was further profiled by the Financial Times in 2026.[14]
Management and remuneration
[edit]The company operates a remote-first model with a "relatively flat" management structure and no internal timesheets.
In 2025, the firm was recognised for its remuneration structure, which includes 40 days of annual leave and what have been described as "market-leading salaries" for all roles, including new graduates.[12]
Key employee frameworks include:
Leave and sabbaticals: A 40-day annual leave allowance and a paid sabbatical programme providing up to six months of leave for long-tenured staff.
Continuing professional development (CPD) fund: An unlimited continuing professional development (CPD) fund and four days of annual paid leave for independent research and development (R&D) projects.
The "Cheers Mate Scheme": A peer-to-peer reward system allowing staff to gift colleagues items from personal "wish lists" using company funds.
Sector training: The firm operates a large-scale Ecology Internship Programme intended to address the industry's skills gap. In 2025, the programme offered approximately 50 paid positions focusing on training in biodiversity net gain (BNG) and preliminary ecological appraisals (PEAs).[15] The Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE) identified the initiative as a significant entry point for graduates into the environmental sector, noting the firm's commitment to competitive entry-level pay and career progression.[16]
Events and knowledge sharing: The company hosts ArbCon, an annual three-day in-house conference established in 2024 to consolidate its distributed, remote workforce. Key speakers have included industry specialists such as Richard Crompton, a recognized tutor for the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT).[17]
References
[edit]- ^ Media, Insider (2025-10-15). "Series of landmarks as Arbtech marks 20th anniversary - Insider Media". Insider Media Ltd. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "PE-backed Celnor acquires ecological survey provider". Business Sale Report. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "The North | Corporate finance deals". KPMG. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "Celnor". Inflexion. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "How I Became: Robert Oates, Founder and CEO of Arbtech - Prolific North". 2025-06-03. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "Chester based Arbtech CEO named in 42 Under 42 list". m2.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "2024". LDC. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "Getting to know... Robert Oates". Bdaily Business News. 2025-02-25. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ Ecology, Inside (2025-08-06). "Government proposals to roll back Biodiversity Net Gain could threaten protection of habitat eight times the size of Manchester". Inside Ecology. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "Written evidence submitted by Arbtech (ESH0094)" (PDF). Environmental Audit Committee, UK Parliament. June 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ Holmes, Wesley (2025-04-25). "UK wildlife under threat as 88% of people concerned about decline". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ a b Vann, Bethany (2024-05-29). "Chester-based ecological consultancy awarded The Sunday Times Best Places to work". Pro Arb Magazine. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ^ Boztas, Sue Leonard | Eleanor Doughty | Matt Glasby | Senay (2025-05-23). "187 best medium-sized places to work 2025". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ "Client Challenge". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ Hodgson, Neil (2025-10-06). "Ecology consultancy on recruitment drive as demand increases". North West. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ Engineer, Building. "The success of an ecology internship programme". www.buildingengineer.org.uk. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
- ^ Trust, Bat Conservation. "Course Tutors - General Training Information". Bat Conservation Trust. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
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