davezawadi (David Stone):

I did read what you wrote about UKPN viewing the cutout. Are UKPN the metering provider? If so they did not give correct advice. I suspect they are not, in which case fair enough, you need the meter man! In any case, you can do nothing on that side of the meter, it is not your problem. You cannot change the wiring, pull the cutout fuse, or anything else as this would be counted as an attempt at the illegal abstraction of electricity even if it is all connected back again. This looks to me as a case where the responsibility has been messed up by the supplier / DNO split. In any case, as no actual danger appears to be present on the tails, they might just be following "policy". In principle there is nothing wrong with rubber tails, there are still many about in good condition. Hicky59, you say badly degraded, but in rubber cable terms this means rubber falling off or badly cracked. Where are the cracks / exposed conductors? You could well be the one who has fallen into the crack in the system!

Hi David

If you look at the pics I posted, one of them shows the N cable between the downstairs service head and the upstairs cutout where it exits the brickwork having no insulation on at all and the bare conductor showing.  The rubber has indeed fallen off ... I wouldn't say no danger.  See my reply to Chris as to the arrangement of the cables, routes, what's where, etc.

davezawadi (David Stone):

I did read what you wrote about UKPN viewing the cutout. Are UKPN the metering provider? If so they did not give correct advice. I suspect they are not, in which case fair enough, you need the meter man! In any case, you can do nothing on that side of the meter, it is not your problem. You cannot change the wiring, pull the cutout fuse, or anything else as this would be counted as an attempt at the illegal abstraction of electricity even if it is all connected back again. This looks to me as a case where the responsibility has been messed up by the supplier / DNO split. In any case, as no actual danger appears to be present on the tails, they might just be following "policy". In principle there is nothing wrong with rubber tails, there are still many about in good condition. Hicky59, you say badly degraded, but in rubber cable terms this means rubber falling off or badly cracked. Where are the cracks / exposed conductors? You could well be the one who has fallen into the crack in the system!

Hi David

If you look at the pics I posted, one of them shows the N cable between the downstairs service head and the upstairs cutout where it exits the brickwork having no insulation on at all and the bare conductor showing.  The rubber has indeed fallen off ... I wouldn't say no danger.  See my reply to Chris as to the arrangement of the cables, routes, what's where, etc.