NEARLY 50 per cent of UK households can now access the internet from their homes.

According to the Government's Expenditure and Food Survey, an estimated 11.7 million households can browse the web.

And in the first three months of the year 54 per cent of adults in Great Britain had used the internet.

Almost those had looked for information about tickets, goods or services.

The most popular purchases were travel, accommodation or holidays (54 per cent), tickets for events (41 per cent), books, magazines, e-learning or training material (40 per cent) and music or CDs (38 per cent).