Getting full access to the server is beneficial as well as harmful also. You can mess up all setting by mistake if you have full access. You cannot do such stupid thing in Shared Web Hosting U.
This is going to give them a great opportunity to see what the whole process is and rent the space to have their website up and running so that customers have a new option. It does not matter whether or not the website is going to be used strictly for informative reasons or if it will be selling a product, there are many options that they will have. The price is going to be a factor sometimes.
This is why I prefer Affordable Web Hosting plans. They give you more control of your website. If your site doesn't generate traffic right away you will not have to worry about having your web hosting service cancelled with no warning. You will also be given more tools to help grow your website and make your site more user friendly. Reliability is also something you get with paid hosting. They want to keep you as a customer so they will do more to keep you satisfied. Free web hosting can be crappy on purpose in hopes that you will upgrade to the paid service so you might as well get an affordable web hosting plan that fits your needs.
MySQL, Perl, Frontpage Extension, all of the features that you get with any decent web hosting account. You'll get them here. Like I said, these feature are pretty much the same everywhere, so don't worry about them.
When you are looking for PHP Hosting, some basic features you need to remember. Like as cPanel this feature easily allows you to install shopping carts, blogs, forums, MySQL database. Ensure that you're hosting provider gives you 24/7 support. Disk space is another thing that you might to remember but it is mostly depending on how much data your Website will manage. Also take look at how much disk space may offer your PHP Shared Web Hosting UK hosting provider. You should make sure that you get sufficient space to suit the type of Website you are developing. But obliviously this kind of things is depends on your needs.
Will they hold your domain to ransom when you come to transfer away? Can you be in full control of your domain at all times? Is the company just another reseller of a reseller of a reseller?!
Having looked at several of the top web host providers in the past, my choice is Vodahost. This is mainly because I prefer their website builder because it allows me the most control over designing my website.