Under the Access to Neighbouring Land Act he is allowed access onto your land to do this work. He must cause as little damage as possible and must reinstate it to the condition it was before he started. If you do not allow him access, he can apply to court for an injunction to make you give him access and he can ask the court to award costs against you.

Please note that access under the Act is only allowed for maintenance and not for new buildings. This is obviously maintenance.

If he is only going down 5 feet and it is 20 feet from your house, when your house is unlikely to be affected. However I would want to see a copy of his buildings insurance and his contractors liability insurance to make sure that if something does go wrong, he is insured for all the costs. It would not be unreasonable of you to ask him to provide a letter from the insurance companies confirming that this risk is covered.

This is not a matter for your insurance.

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L