I did my PPL and most of my hour building overseas, saved me a fortune and I can still fly a G reg a/c here on the ICAO license with only minor restrictions.
If you are intending to do your CPL/ME/IR in the UK, save the last 30 hours or so of your hour building and do it here, as the airspace is quite complex and that should be enough time for you to cover most things and get familier with it before moving on.
Oh and it's not been mentioned so far, but you also need a Night Rating before you can start the CPL too. Thats only a short course though and is probably the cheapest part of the training !!!
