First of all, welcome to the forum! Evo quoted you as saying "Have been looking at this forum page for ages but just plucked up courage to post my first message," and admitted having been like that once himself. I was never like that - I think it took me all of about a day to pluck up the courage to post on a subject I knew nothing about. And nothing's changed since!
As for the PPL/NPPL choice, as others have said, there is nothing wrong with the NPPL. But it won't be very much cheaper, for 2 reasons. The obvious one, as most have pointed out, is that you're unlikely to complete the training for the NPPL in much less (if any less at all) time that the PPL.
But here's another way of looking at it. Flying isn't just about getting a license, it's about continuing to fly after that. I don't know what your budget is, but let's imagine you can afford to fly an hour every 2 weeks on average. Say you do a PPL, and it takes you 50 hours (which would be pretty quick if you're only flying every 2 weeks). 2 years later, you have a nice shiny PPL, and it's cost you £6000. (That's based on £120/hr, and excludes all the other costs you'll incur such as books, charts, airfield guides, your own headset if you choose to buy one, exam fees, test fees, landing fees......)
Now, let's look at the alternative, the NPPL. Let's say you can do that in 40 hours. As I've said, I'm not convinced that it can be done in 20% less time than the PPL, but let's assume it can, and bear with me. So you start your training, and after about 21 months, you have a nice shiny NPPL. The cost was £4800, again based on £120/hr, and excluding any "extras". Now what do you do? Well, hopefully you go and fly with your nice shiny new license! Over the next couple of months, assuming you continue to fly every 2 weeks, you'll log about 10 hours, which will cost you £1000 (assuming £100/hr - slightly cheaper than the training because you're not paying for an instructor.)
So, at the end of 2 years, whichever path you take, you have 50 hours in your logbook, and a license. And if you do the NPPL, assuming a very optimistic 20% reduction in your training time, you've saved yourself the grand sum of £200, or 3%. Wow!
The NPPL seems to me like a very useful license. It frees UK pilots from a lot of the bureaucracy of the JARs, and it's especially useful for pilots who are unable to meet the unnecessarilly strict medical requirements for a JAR PPL. But I'm not convinced that it would be useful for most of us. Give yourself the option of adding ratings or flying abroad if you want to, and get a PPL.
But whatever you do, good luck, and have fun!
FFF
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