If you can find one used in your price range, I recommend a Ford Focus. You can find them in pretty much every body style—3-door hatchback, 5-door hatchback, sedan/saloon, wagon/estate, even convertible coupe.
They get excellent fuel economy (particularly if you get a diesel). They have spirited handling and are fun to drive. You can get them with 6-speed manual transmissions too (probably not used, though). Reliability is generally good (that link is for the North American version, but they should be similar; compare to the Honda Civic). As far as safety goes, Wookiepedia says the European version gets “the best ever EuroNCAP ratings for its class (5 stars for adult protection, 4 of 5 for child protection and 2 of 5 for pedestrian protection), beating such contenders as the Renault Mégane and Volkswagen Golf, including full (16/16) marks for the front impact test.”
The Mazda 3 and Volvo C30/S40 are on the same platform and are also pretty good (hell, here’s a Volvo S40, for £3,000 with 40,000 miles, somewhere in the UK, that I would totally cruise). And they’ve all got a lot more style and personality than a Toyota or Honda.
I don’t live in the UK so I’m really not in a position so as to advise any particular model or whatever - just wanted to provide some guides as to what I think about when looking at cars…
I bought my Kia at 2 years old for £3K (maybe £2.5K - I don’t recall precisely). No reliability issues at all (apart from a self-inflicted dead battery). That was 5 years ago.
Edit: it was a Kia Shuma, and I purchased it from a dealer.