Some will do what they please – despite wiring code

With regard to banking: For years I banked with NatWest, and paid £200-250 pa for this.

Then I discovered that my personal bank (Nationwide) was happy for me to open a normal Flexaccount for my business. The only (slight) drawback is that you have to open the account in your personal name, not that of the company. So I save shed-loads each year. If only I'd done that in 1996!

As for the wiring colours, they have already changed. I have been using harmonised cable for 12 months now. The colours are changing to brown and blue as you say, and this is to bring it in line with flexible cable colours, which changed in the late sixties/early seventies.

That should make it more recognisable to DIY'ers. The three phase colours have changed, not to black, but as follows:

Red changes to Brown, Yellow changes to Black, Blue changes to Grey, (and if the system is 3p+N) Black changes to Blue.

To be fair, with training, tradesmen should be able to id cables correctly, and with Part P in force, they should get training in this area, even if the jobs they do are not notifiable to the LA or Building Control. The new colour legislation was put into force in April 2004, and after April 2006, only the harmonised cable will be allowed.

Your "not mixing colours" idea is good. The trouble is that DIY'ers (and unscrupulous trades) will do as they please, if they have an old bit of cable, they'll use it – doesn’t matter what colours it is! And onto Part P ... Part P has had £1M spent on it, to save a handful of lives per annum. I'm not saying that these lives are not worth saving, but why doesn't John Prescott spend the same cutting deaths on the roads or railways?

The problem is that rogue installers will not give a damn whether Part P is now law – they broke the law before Part P, and they'll break it after ...

Simon Abbott, Secure Electrical Services simon@secure-electrical.org.uk

Mike Lynskey replies ...

Many thanks for reading the column. You are not the first to point out the “wrong” colours – but – we are both wrong and we are both right. There is an option to label the three phases as opposed to colour coding. The mistake was not giving both options, and of course I opted for the less popular option. As for the banking – it is just a matter of looking for the alternatives. There are many if we look for them. This brings me to another point – why do we pay accountants if they cannot find the cheaper options for us? I need readers like you to keep me on my toes.