The Sieg lathes are kind of like an assembled kit. You'll learn a lot getting it all set up to run super nice but you do have to spend some time at it. Given that you're in the UK, I would look hard at the arceuro ones mentioned above as they are built to a better specification by Sieg. The 7xs are about the smallest, cheapest lathes you can do real work on.
Bed length is crucial on a small lathe. For example, one thing you find you often want to do is drill out the centre of your work. For that, you loose a lot of bed length with the drill, tailstock and chuck. For example, on my (non-Sieg) 7x10, which is really a 7x8, there's only about 6" between the end of the chuck and the tailstock drill chuck. So that means the largest piece I can centre drill in one go is 3" (3" of work and 3" of drill bit). The 7x14 is 6" longer, meaning the largest piece you can centre drill is 6" long. Big difference!
To get you out of that, you can actually pass your work through the headstock and get yourself a lot more room. This is another critical thing to look at in a lathe; the headstock bore size. It also allows you to work on long shafts with one end sticking out the end of the lathe. The 7xs are a little over 16mm. I also have a 10x20 which has a 25mm+ bore which is far more useful.
As for swing, the swing over the bed is not nearly as important as swing over the cross slide. This really is what limits the diameter of the work you can do outside machining on. There are ways around it but none of them are fun.
If you expect to do a lot of threading on the lathe, the change gears are a little tiring and you should look for a lathe with a quick change gearbox. The classic cheap chinese lathe in this category is the 9x20, but I find it far too spindly a machine at under 300lbs (another useful measure of a lathe BTW).
EDIT:
Yes mtdoc, both are made by the same company in China:
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/gallery/photos.php?Qwd=./2004-06%20SIEG%20Factory%20Tour%20China&Qif=PICT0307.JPG&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=MHowever there are several other Chinese companies making competing 7x machines. There are subtle differences between them. Also Sieg builds them to customer specifications including quality.
HDPE is super easy to turn with an awesome finish. That and 6061 Al is good starter material. Finally expect to spend about as much as you do on the lathe for tooling including measuring tools.
EDIT 2, last one I promise!: The PROXXON has a die cast aluminium headstock? That alone is reason not to buy it. There's good reason every manufacturer of machine tools uses cast iron or some synthetic materials, but never ever aluminium.
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