Most companies will not pay a local employee to an international amount. You're also going to pay quite large fees for any transfers if you wanted to pay bills. Also, the account abroad is not a proof of address in the UK which is the thing you want from statements.

Long time ago when I came to the UK I had that exact problem, there was only one bank (HSBC I think) that agreed to open an account for based on passport only. Even though I'm an EU citizen and UK was part of the EU at that time. Otherwise I would be stuck, because my employer (no employer I know of) would send my wage overseas.

Good luck paying rent/utilities in the UK, or proving a UK address, with a foreign (especially non-SEPA) bank account

I have been doing so for years, never had a problem.

You have not been proving your UK address with your account abroad. You may have used it for other purposes, but not that.

I have done that once too, just changed the account address to my UK address and printed a PDF statement. No problem whatsoever.

But anyway, you can just get utilies and pay with foreign account. This gets you an utility bill.