Have you looked at Blackpool? No restricting airspace in the vicinity (A, B, C etc..) to worry about.
They have a variety of a/c there, usual 152's, PA28's, 172's etc but also have a 172 with G1000 glass cockpit and a PA28R Arrow that you can have a go in if you fancied doing some differences training and putting a "complex" tag in your logbook?
They also have a selection of twins if you wanted to look at that a little later on?
How much flying are you planning on doing per month/year? Might be worth looking at somewhere with a group/non-profit shares. That can bring your hourly rate down quite a lot as opposed to "standard" hire rates.
Sleap might be a bit far if your after somewhere in the North West. Lovelly little place but used to take me quite a while to drive there and I was classed as a 'local' !!!