Thanks Steven and North Star.
I have 3 years remaining of the 8 year term. If I encash today, I agree that over the next 8 years as a buy and hold investor, it is likely to be worth more in 8 years, than today, but it is not guaranteed. The tax hit today is a decent sum of money, and will mean that I will not have that decent sum earning investment returns for the next three years. But, this is irrelevant, as I am effectively being forced to encash.
I was wondering if any other options existed to optimise the tax situation/prevent the tax event.
Thanks for the details on the property pension Steven. I had heard of arm's lenght, but I thought it was the rental that had to be arms length, and not the acquiring of the property.
So the only way to put something into your pension is with cold hard cash, no transferring in assets that you already hold.