Tiling backboards or just paint?

[cansu]

I have chosen my units and am now thinking about what to do behind oven and hob, behind sink where I will have a small gap and in between worktop and wall cabinets. Am worried paint option will become quickly dirty. What do people have?

Definitely tiles. It won't just get dirty, it will get properly disgusting if you can't give it a good scrub.

Paint will get disgusting as cooking/washing up splashes back there (I rented a place with just paint once, and ended up blue-tacking silver foil to the wall to stop fat/washing up liquid staining it)

I wouldn't even have tiles myself - I'd go for one of those sheet materials - ikea have stainless I think, B&Q do various ones as well. Then there's no grout to get ingrained with stuff either.

We've not got tiles anywere and it's never been an issue. Just buy proper kitchen paint so it's easily wipeable.

Yes, google "splashbacks" - lots of different kinds, e.g glass, stainless steel, etc.