Brown tips appearing - help!

alisonws

Hello. I'm new on here and new to gardening so please excuse my ignorance if I make a mistake 
I've recently taken over caring for a communal garden at the back of my house. There are two huge trees at the back of the house that have been fine for years despite - or more likely because of - being left to their own devices but now I've started 'looking after' the garden, one of them (a conifer I'm guessing) is starting to turn brown.  I haven't done anything drastic, just turned over the soil a little bit, tidied and started planting a few small plants.  
Our neighbours left an empty house with a dripping pipe that has not been repaired so I'm catching this water and rerouting it onto the soil near the tree but as the weather has been so dry for the past few weeks I didn't think this would have a negative effect.
I can't see any obvious bugs on the tree.
Please can anyone advise me on what to do?

wild edges

That tree looks way to close to the house. I'd get it checked out and probably removed before it does any structural damage.

alisonws

So maybe trying to save it isn't such a good idea? That half of the building and garden is owned by our local council and trying to get them to do anything is almost impossible. I would have to prove it was causing damage before they'd agree and I'm not sure how I'd do that without paying a lot of money. I'll look into it though, thanks for the tip.