It's still going to come down to money though - the country is broke and Trillions in debt - ... ... ...
Well, actually, NO. The Government owes money to the Bank of England, which is effectively just another government department. So not really debt. Can't go broke. In a high value, monetarily sovereign, developed economy, austerity and poverty are political decisions and they appear to continue to exist for spite.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deficit-Myth-Modern-Monetary-Economy/dp/1529352525/
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-deficit-myth/stephanie-kelton/9781529352528
Also, the MCA is using the idea that each accidental death costs the state a sum of around £2M as part of the arithmetic for this contract and this is in the public domain. That means that each year of operations of this current service is paying for the entire ten years of the contract including both fixed and variable costs. I am reliably informed that a number like that was also being used in the previous contract process. A few years ago, I was asked about the cost of helicopter rescue and arrived at the same figure independently using what I had found out from organisations like the Health and Safety Executive, Network Rail and the Crown Office who all propose similar numbers.
Every budget holder in the civil service loves to go to his boss and tell him that he got it so much cheaper, and I am sure Damien Oliver is no different in that respect, but the reality is that pouring money into a well equipped and well staffed highly capable search and rescue aviation service is a wonderful way of injecting money into the economy at a time when stimulus is desperately needed.