Hi, I'm also from the UK. My first couple of builds were kits from Bitsbox, they're a good price and only £1.75 shipping, no matter how big the order. The kits are linked with tagboard effects layouts which is really helpful, although this does mean they're on stripboard rather than specialist PCB's. If you'd prefer working on a PCB then I'd recommend fuzzdog. For parts in general, Bitsbox, ESR electronics and Rapid electronics are all good.