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this is very confusing because we bought the house having been told it had (last 4 years) had a new CU and lower two floors have all new lighting fitted.
this light is on the top floor, there are two rooms on that floor that appear to have old light fittings, so i guesss.. they got lazy at the top?
rogan-
Do you have a loft/loft access? If so, it might not be as tricky to get new cables in for upstairs.
It is alright/common to not have earthing on your lighting circuits that are older, and is generally fine if you only use plastic accessories.
The house we were working on had loads of stuff that had been "sorted" by the builder that did their kitchen, who had installed a load of new light fittings. They hadn't updated any of the actual wiring though!
They may have replaced the fittings and not the cables.
Check elsewhere in the house on the lights to see if there's an earth (CPC) present.
Nef
Yes
Rewiring your lighting circuits with earthed cable may be a much bigger job than you expect. Doing a small 3 bedroom house took me and another guy 2 and a half days to do it, and we were lucky that we were able to pull most of the new cables in place when we pulled the old cables out and only had to chase one wall out.
Depending on the layout of the house, generally floorboards will need to come up and chases put in the walls to get new cables in. If your house is finished (ie not currently being renovated) it can be quite an involved process that requires an amount of redecorating afterwards.