Thanks for the info Edymonster. It does seem the slightly cheaper route according to the FTO documentation
even if the initial lower outlay for hour-building is balanced by the later costs of top-up hour-building to get your 200 hours.
My PPL Instructor's initial reaction when I asked about doing the ME, then IR, and then CPL was to say it was a big step up and might be difficult. Your experience suggests it's do-able.
I might revisit my initia thoughts, which were to do the initial 70 hours hour-building in SEP, then ME in order to do the remaining 30 hours in a twin, then CPL, then IR. Good plan?