Edinburgh has 14 designated conservation areas covering much of the city’s most desirable residential neighbourhoods — New Town, Morningside, Marchmont, Stockbridge, Leith, Portobello, and more. If your property sits within one of these areas, there are specific rules about what you can and cannot do to your windows. This guide explains the rules clearly.
What Is a Conservation Area?
A conservation area is a designated area of special architectural or historic interest, protected under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. Edinburgh has 14 such areas. Within them, Edinburgh City Council has stronger control over changes that would affect the character of buildings — including windows.
What Requires Consent in a Conservation Area?
Conservation Area Consent is required for any works that would demolish a building or structure in the area. In practice, for windows, the relevant restriction is that replacing original timber sash windows with uPVC, aluminium, or any non-timber alternative typically requires planning permission and is routinely refused. Edinburgh City Council and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) guidance strongly favours repair and retention of original materials.
What Does NOT Require Consent
Repair work on sash windows — including cord replacement, draught proofing with reversible brushpile seals, timber splice repairs, repainting, and re-glazing — does not require any planning consent in a conservation area, provided the repairs are like-for-like and sympathetic to the original construction. This applies even in Category A and B listed buildings.
Edinburgh’s 14 Conservation Areas
The fourteen Edinburgh conservation areas include: New Town and Broughton (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Old Town, Marchmont and Sciennes, Morningside, Stockbridge and Inverleith, Leith, Portobello, Dean Village, Murrayfield, Corstorphine, Newington, Prestonfield, Duddingston, and Cramond. Each has its own character appraisal and specific guidance notes available from Edinburgh City Council.
Listed Buildings Within Conservation Areas
Edinburgh has 4,559 listed buildings — more per capita than anywhere else in Scotland. Many of these sit within conservation areas, giving them double protection. For listed buildings, Listed Building Consent is required for any alterations that affect the character of the building. Repair, again, is exempt — and our methods are fully reversible, as required by HES guidance.
We work across all Edinburgh conservation areas and have extensive experience with listed building repair constraints. Read more about our listed building service →
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