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___freddie
Yeah, I’ve got a fair amount of experience in this although admittedly focused in London and surrounding areas. All local authorities are slightly different in their approach to general alterations of listed buildings, but I have found most to be pretty consistent in their approach to alterations to windows. Whilst that recent Historic England guide seems progressive in it’s outlook for listed buildings, it is full of double speak or impossibilities that don’t move the dial forwards in any real way, and aligns with the planning officer paragraph being:
“Slim double glazed units fitted within existing frames (lol, not possible in the vast majority of cases) are only likely to be acceptable where there would be no loss of historic detail (general detailing including mm width of window bars, see above point) or fabric (window frames, potentially glass) and where uniformity of elevations would be maintained (width of window bars, especially if part of a run of similar buildings)”.
Real Historic England guidance is to repair what you have only replacing where absolutely necessary, and replacing seals/brushes to better seal your windows. Most local authorities are open to replacing glass, and something like Histoglass Mono RT+ (not cheap) sits between regular single glazing and double glazing u-value wise. Secondary glazing inboard of this helps you get to double glazing thermal performance levels, and some staff bead mounted systems aren’t that ugly if you squint really tightly.
If you can provide definite evidence that your windows are non-original, and your home isn’t neighboured by similar buildings of equal heritage merit with similar windows then you probably could get something better than the above through but tbh you are going to need to go money gun on it with a decent architect and planning/heritage consultant to argue it through.
In short, what @Howard said.