The £20 note will soon be made of plastic

The Bank of England will unveil a visual artist to feature on the note in spring

(REUTERS/Dylan Martinez )

The next £20 banknote will be printed on polymer, the Bank of England has announced.

The move is designed to make UK’s most common banknote more secure, durable and cleaner.

Polymer notes will provide enhanced counterfeit resilience, and increase the quality of banknotes in circulation. They are also more environmentally friendly than paper and, because they last longer are, over time, cheaper than paper banknotes, according to Bank of England research.

The new polymer note will enter circulation in three to five years.

This move follow the decision to print £5 and £10 banknotes in December 2013, following 10 week of public consultation, that found out 87 per cent of respondent were in favour of change.

The polymer £5 note featuring Winston Churchill will be issued in autumn 2016 while the £10 polymer note feature Jane Austen will enter the circulation a year later.

A visual artist to appear on the new polymer £20 note was chosen during the public nomination period held earlier this year. The winning name will be unveiled next spring.

Around 1.9 billion £20 bank notes were in circulation at the end of February, compared with 737 million £10 notes, according to Bank date.