Consider all small aircraft categories
Hi Teddy,
Your post does not indicate whether you merely wish to fly for fun or whether you intend to go professional. This makes a huge difference. If you only wish to fly for fun, then you do not need to go the PPL route, whereas if you intend to go professional and become an airline pilot then PPL is the only way to go.
Assuming you only wish to fly for fun, the other options are the NPPL, (which is a UK licence that only permits you to fly in the UK, but has less onerous medical requirements and no requirement to do instrument flying) and two axis and three axis microlight flying.
Two axis microlight flying is the cheapest form of powered flight with open cockpits and flexible wings. It requires different skills to ordinary flying, and is a lot of fun and well worth considering.
Three axis microlighting provides the very best small private aeroplanes currently available. They outperform all the ,Group A' training aeroplanes currently used by flying clubs (most of which date back to the 80s), and you can learn from a non-licenced site, which reduces the hourly rate. The only downside is that being legally microlights their weight carrying capacity is limited.
Broomstick.