Red Chilli
Sounds very good, but as Keef points out, all the time there is the N-reg alternative (available to UK residents) few prospective UK PPL/IR pilots will take the time to support it.
Most serious private flyers I know are either already N-reg or are working towards it. They tend to be owners, or in a group with others with same usage, so N-reg is not a problem, and there are other benefits e.g. owner maintenance, various savings, and ability to fit FAA STC'd items.
The FAA Class 3 medical is also potentially very valuable in its own right. For example, most UK NPPL recruits are 50+ men who already have the PPL but who now fail the CAA Class 2 medical, and according to a CAA man I spoke to recently the average NPPL age is 60. The FAA C3 med has (I am told) no ECG and no audiogram, and despite the reluctance of the CAA to lower the standards for a PPL/IR there is no evidence (from the USA) that this causes any statistically visible problems. So I have no idea why the CAA are being so pedantic about it. Unfortunately - given the N-reg option - the attractiveness of an easier PPL/IR will be undermined if it still requires the CAA Class 2 medical (plus some of Class 1 such as the audiogram).
There are also obvious "PPL/IR-type" planes e.g. the Cirrus SR22 which presently have to be N-reg anyway.
The situation would change if the CAA did what the French DGAC has just proposed, i.e. to shaft French-resident N-reg owners by allowing them a max of 6 months. (The FAA apparently allows only 6 months after which a US-based plane has to go onto the N-reg, so the French are going to do the same; one can speculate as to the trigger for this
) So the DGAC is going to force a lot of their frequent private flyers into the JAA IR.