Hi Martin
Firstly, I suggest you check out the Rotorheads forum where there's loads more advice on this.
I originally wanted to do helicopters and spent some time researching. £50k is realistic for the CPL(h), and will certainly get you an integrated course at Oxford. Definitely worth visiting and meeting Andy Gutteridge the CFI who certainly impressed me. Modular over here will be cheaper obviously, and lots of people also rate HAI in the US as you've already discovered.
All that being said, all you'll end up with is a VFR CPL, and instructing aside there are VERY few of those jobs around. COmpetition is from ex service pilots with lots of turbine time. On top of this, to get a decent job you have to have an IR, and you HAVE to do it on a twin-turbine machine and that is going to cost you another £25k at least. Used to be the N.Sea operators would put you through this then bond you, but the N sea is winding down bigtime.
I decided that "planks" were a less risky proposition, but I appreciate some people do get a bit fundamentalist about helos!
That being said, my research is about 8m out of date, so do check rotorheads out - and best of luck.
SS