Some bloke from the council might say a permit is not required, but if this is the public pavement then the law is quite clear that VM will have to apply for a S171 permit, and failure to do so can incur significant penalties that are easily issued via fixed penalty notices. Every council will have a team to process permits, and permits for minor works would be issued in a couple of days. Any excuses of "waiting weeks for the council to issue a permit" are usually claptrap by people trying to hide their own bungling and sloth. If it is a private pavement (eg on housing association land) then VM would need the owner's formal permission to dig, that can sometimes take a long while, and if the landowner wants a full method statement, detailed plans and H&S statements then VM may simply give up (we have seen this before). Dealing with either councils or landowners would be normal for ALL minor repair works like this, and ought to be bread-and-butter stuff for VM's pre-installation team, but given the random way that VM work, there's no way of knowing if the installation will get done tomorrow, drag on for another three months, or even get cancelled by VM after dragging on for weeks and weeks.
So.....if VM are miring a simple new installation in long delays without accurate information (a) how long are you going to let this go on for? (b) what's the impact on you and your friend? and (c) imagine what the remainder of VM's customer service is like for the sort of minor service faults that occasionally crop up when you are connected? Give it some thought, but I think you need to consider whether you're going to let this rumble on, or whether reconnecting an Openreach line is the best outcome for you. I have advised others in similar situations to consider ordering an Openreach ISP connection, and go with whoever installs a working connection first, cancelling the one that hasn't yet been done, but you need to do what works best for you.
