"he wants a simillar salary but states that as we probably wouldnt want to fly in poor weather the IR is not required"
I bet he does! That's because he doesn't want to shell out £50,000 for an IR (the UK taxpayer is not paying for his licences anymore)
An IR is ESSENTIAL. You can't grub around under the clouds in an EC155 on a corporate job. It is a great IFR machine. Don't skimp on the most important part of the aircraft (the pilot).