If you need a cheap but good quality lens with max zoom range, look anywhere you can find old items, such as ebay etc for
Canon 28-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 USM EF Lens
I got mine at $200 and am very happy with image quality (Not the best by any means but a lot better than Kit lens). Usual price is about $300 to $500 that is still lower than your proposed price.
But if you really need quality more than zoom, look for
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD. Its about 3 to 4 hundred dollars but IQ and sharpness is very close to Canon's EF 24-70mm F/2.8
L USM that goes for about $1200. Believe me when I say picture quality is very close between both of them as I hate Tamron (Except this one that I own) and Love Canon (Shame on me for this advice). I can't tell you how sharp this Tamron lens is...
One thing you may want to take into consideration, very importantly is your F number especially if you are thinking of mostly using it out door in UK or for that mater anywhere you can not count on excess daylight, most of time. Don't get fooled by the zooms that have 2 F in range, that is you get the more visible smaller F number only for wide, say 3.5 but when you zoom in, your apparture gets very narrow, say F5.6