Originally Posted by
tmmorris
Do you mean the step in skills, or the step in training time and costs?
Training time and costs. Skills can be built with experience.
I'd agree with your comment about lack of opportunity to practice IAP's in the UK - but there are usually plenty of opportunities to fly in real weather enroute, and keeping your IMC handling skills current will go a long way to keeping you safe when you really need to use them in anger.