Over 20% of Brits would build extension over green upgrades

The findings are part of a Europe-wide 8,000 person survey published by E.ON, which asked respondents what they would do if they had to spend a large amount of money on their house.

In Germany, 27 per cent of people said they’d rather refresh their interior deco than pay for a green makeover, the latter being favoured by less than a fifth of those questioned.

The survey revealed Hungary is perhaps the most efficiency-conscious country in Europe – 51 per cent said they would spend the money on a retrofit, dwarfing the 18 per cent who said they would want to redecorate.

In Italy and Romania there is also a preference for energy conservation, with 37 per cent and 34 per cent choosing this option respectively.

In the UK, just 6 per cent of all households had an energy efficient measure installed under the entire Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, as of December 2016.

Another E.ON survey suggests almost three quarters (73 per cent) of people have adopted smarter technologies in their homes.