The SARF is already being privatised by the back door anyway; despite sterling effort from Helicopter Maintenance Flight at St Mawgan to improve throughput and productivity, all major servicing will be handed over to DARA at Fleetlands this year. Additionally, all the very dedicated first line engineers who populate the SAR flts fixing the cabs at all hours of the day and night are to be replaced by civilian contractors by the middle of 08. Quite who would be foolish enough to take on the aging Sea King fleet and the ponderous RAF engineering practices and expect to make a profit is beyond me but apparently it is happening. And just to improve matters, the move to calendar servicing and lean maintenance has pushed more of the engineering load on the flights.
The move from St Mawgan (where lots of people want to be) to Valley (where no-one wants to be) is just the icing on the cake when the SARF is already chin deep in uncertainty and change.
As for the cost of the SARF, this has been argued extensively on this forum before and nobody has come up with a way of accurately comparing like with like, yet they always come to the conclusion that civilianisation will be cheaper. You will still be paying for the SAR cover from your taxes and 24 hr SAR cover doesn't come cheap, whoever is the provider.