BEagle, I suppose if someone is doing just a PPL(A) then £450 may be a significant sum.
I have to disagree here - £450 represents less than 10 percent of the cost of a PPL in most places. I would have happily paid 10% more to get talented and motivated professional instructors rather than hours builders with no instructional ability and the marginal flying skills that 200 hrs give you. As it happens I did have, for the most part, a talented and motivated professional instructor, but I was lucky, and he left for a job that paid sensible money shortly afterwards.
My perception is that a significant proportion of the PPL student community intends to progress on to ATPL.
Not in my part of the world. Plenty start out with that intention (me included) but precious few take it all the way ..... dissuaded in part by the unmotivated depressed and underpaid FATPL holder who spent £60k getting a licence and still hasn't got a job two years later and is forced to exist on £10k for teaching.
Pay instructors properly and create a workforce that actually wants to do the job. That in turn will create better trained safer pilots, at all levels.
Whats needed badly (and has been for some years) is a Flying Instructor Union
How will that help? Unless you create a closed shop, which is never going to work (and not desirable imho)