Currently I have owner read and write permission on both /.cache and /.cache/pip but only group read and write permission on /.cache/pip.
Anyway I have NanoVNA-saver running through Nick's requirements.txt hack so will leave alone
den@den-ThinkPad-T520 ~ $ ls -dl /home/den/.cache
drwx------ 36 den den 4096 Dec 9 19:08 /home/den/.cache
den@den-ThinkPad-T520 ~ $ ls -dl /home/den/.cache/pip
drwxrwx--- 5 den den 4096 Jan 15 22:23 /home/den/.cache/pip
Thanks for the suggestion