A friend could not get one of his new wall lights to work and thinking he had damaged the cable called me to fix it. Checked the cable visually and it was Ok so connected light, neutral cut off at wall, and power was comming through live but no neutral. Traced cable and carefully cut floor board along joist in bedroom above and managed to cut through the two cables to the wall lights. The cables had just been laid on top of the joist, I know I should have been even more careful. Opened the junction box and found the cause, the cpc had been used as the neutral and not sleeved at either end. My friend had wired his metal wall lights with the cpc connected to the metal work, he had sleeved the "CPC" though. The original work was done by an "electrician" who had rewired the house under the supervision of architects.
