Paul,
I've just come across a lot more fried equipment in the UK than I have in the Republic of Ireland.
E.g. newer domestic appliances that have a high degree of electronic control. Cookers, washers etc with lots of chips and even solid-state switching on board sometimes don't take well to higher voltages.
Typically if you connect a multimeter across a supply here you'll get between 220 and 228V. In rural areas in particular (long lines) you'll often get about 215-220V. It's not unheard of to have problems with voltage dips in some rural areas. E.g. I've heard of gas boilers failing to start and when the technician checked the supply voltage it was sitting at barely 190V !! This was a farm way out in the middle of nowhere. Once the poco was alerted to this they fixed the voltage issue.
The UK seems to have the other extreme in some urban areas though, where you're close to the transformer..
