Just over half of the country expects the UK to have joined the euro within five years, according to research.

People living in the South-East are most confident the pound will be phased out, with 61 per cent expecting the UK to join the euro, followed by 60 per cent of people in Scotland and 57 per cent of those in the North-West, according to Girobank, the commercial banking arm of Alliance & Leicester.

At the other end of the scale, only 44 per cent of people in the Midlands expect to be using euros in the future, while 48 per cent of those in the North- East and 49 per cent of people in Yorkshire think the UK will join the single currency.

But whatever currency is legal tender in five years' time, 60 per cent of Britons expect to still be using the same amount of cash or more than they currently use, while only 12 per cent of those questioned think they will use less.