In answer to the original Q.
Yes. Don't be fooled by price snobbery. Especially if like me you just use a bike to keep the flab away and get some exercise.
For general use - fitness - commuting without getting your bike nicked then £150 will get you something usable. Perhaps if seriously commuting then spend a bit more, but unless you have secure bike parking then what's the point?
I have two bikes - one is a five year old "Hybrid" apollo Halford's hack (£150 new) that I have completed over 6000 miles on including a camping trip from Bristol to Devon. All I have ever replaced are the tyres (I went for a smoother kevlar 1.75 filled with slime too - instead of the original more traily 2.25) when the rear one got down to the canvas; and changed the brake blocks for something with a bigger contact area thus improving the braking vastly.
I clean it thoroughly once a year, spray the chain with WD40 every so often and adjust the brakes and gears occasionally. The gears are sweet and it does more than I could ever have hoped for for the £150 I paid. (The extra £50 got me an ali frame and a seven speed back sprocket instead of six and the gears felt much better than the £99 bottom of the range.)
This bike would have many on this forum giving it "I'd rather walk" or puking with disgust or laughing in dismay, but it does 90% of what I want on road and trail and street and with a rack, a frame mudguard and a 3 litre ice cream carton on the back I can carry showerproofs (Aldi or Army surplus of course) and enough tools and grub for a 50 mile run which is about the most I do anyway.
My other bike is a Specialized Allez "double" which at £500 is nice enough on the road after a change of tyres (with rubbish brakes) and is just about "real bike" enough to get the nod of approbation from other roadies who are
so serious.
I've done about 2000 miles on this in the two years I've had it which reflects that I generally use the Halfords hack for a mid week one hour blasts on a mixture of surfaces, and weekend rides on railway paths.
Oh and the chain snapped on my Allez (not WD40'd but using some special lube supplied by the bikeshop) at 700 miles and the "you must have worn it out" rubbish I got from the LBS only served to make me more determined to get it replaced under warranty, which I eventually did.
Get on it and enjoy it!