A FARMER has spent almost two years powering his house from a generator after delays to work left electricity poles on his land leading to nowhere.

Kevin Hall, of Cowpastures Farm near Bicester, paid £26,000 up front to have electricity wired up to his newly-built house in January 2016.

But 21 months later the 65-year-old and his son Martin Hall have been left with six electricity poles across the farmland, but no power supply.

Mr Hall, who runs livestock haulage from his farm, said: "I paid £26,000 up front and within about six months they had sorted the route for the electrics.

"By about one year they had put up the poles and done a good job of it, but they just go nowhere."

Mr Hall paid the money to energy giant Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSE).

But after a neighbour's dispute with SSE, work has been stalled on the project for several months leaving the home to be powered off a back-up generator.

The company said it has paid him back about £13,000 as a result of the delayed work.

Mr Hall said: "It is just annoying that I paid all this money up front and nearly two years later still don't have any electricity.

"Now we have the generator, which is okay but it does mean you have to get up in the middle of the night to turn it off, or early in the morning to turn it on.

"If you want heating, with winter coming up, you have to go turn it on.

"The trouble is we have been waiting all this time and they have had my money and still nothing."

Mr Hall said he has been told by SSE that they will have to reroute the electrics through nearby Ministry of Defence land as a result of the dispute with a neighbour, which will cost him another £3,500.

SSE spokesman, Duncan MacDonald, said: "SSE is committed to completing customers’ connection requests in a safe and timely manner.

"Key to the completion of this connection was the issue of access to neighbouring land.

"When it became clear that we would not be able to work along our originally planned route, a refund of approximately half the total amount paid by Mr Hall was paid to him in June last year.

"Negotiations have been ongoing ever since then and we are pleased to confirm that access along a new route has been granted in principle, which means that we will now be able to start work on a revised timetable for completion."

SSE confirmed the new route was 'granted in principle' earlier this week.