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Thinking aloud here. There are various options.

Options are a Good Thing.

To summarise. BT main
socket is upstairs, connected directly to cable coming in from roof.

I think I would be inclined to leave it there, for a number of reasons:

a) to avoid frigging with the BT side of things (you're not supposed to
touch the master socket apart from removing the lower half of the
faceplate to disconnect extension wiring and using the test socket),

b) to keep the analogue side of things (the BT line) as short as
possible and

c) the BT line and router are probably in a more interference-free
environment in the loft, being physically distanced from things like the
ring main, boiler, immersion, TV, electrical appliances, etc.

If you relocate it to within the house, you may introduce it to a more
electrically noisy environment with a consequent drop in ADSL
performance.

Router is plugged directly into BT main socket, and self and wife can
pick up an acceptable wi-fi signal everywhere downstairs

by 'downstairs', do you mean the floor immediately below the
loft/router?

. Son's desktop
needs a cable from router to PC.

1. Just buy a wireless dongle for son's desktop, and leave everything
else alone.

2. Extend the CAT5 downstairs, and either hardwire son's desktop
directly, or install a second access point.

I'd do this. Hardwire it, but if you want to add more things in future
(e.g. a game console or smart TV), you can simply add a switch or a
wireless AP.

3. Extend the CAT5 downstairs, and just move the original router
downstairs, and hardwire son's desktop, with self and wifey picking up
wi-fi.

no, leave the BT stuff alone, then there's no comeback if a fault
develops with the line in future and the "engineer" takes exception to
your modifications

4. Move the main (and only) BT socket downstairs, and move router with
it.

as 3.

Which is best - extending the BT socket, or extending the CAT5?

The Cat5.

Or does
it make little practical difference to overall download speeds? I have
sufficient BT and CAT5 cable to do either.

You can use the Cat5 to extend the BT line if you want - its' spec
exceeds that of BT (CW1308) cable considerably. Use the same pair
colours (blue and blue/white) for consistency and avoid the temptation
to use the unused pairs for anything else such as extensions to avoid
crosstalk.

It would be best to keep the BT line as short as possible and avoid
running it through an electrically noisy environment. That means your
loft location is probably pretty much ideal. You can extend the
Ethernet from the router in the loft using Cat5 as much as you like with
no concerns about signal loss up to the maximum cable length of 100m.

Perhaps consider a Cat5 run from the router in the loft to a wireless AP
on the floor below, and another to an AP on the floor below that. That
should pretty much cover your needs.

--
:: je suis Charlie :: yo soy Charlie :: ik ben Charlie ::