'Fair Market Valuation'?

One piece of mail awaiting my return today was a letter from the Council reminding me that the Ridgeback Panorama I 'leased' as part of the "Bike-to-Work" scheme back in September 2009, is now nearly coming to the end of its original lease-period ...

... what I hadn't realised (until I read the damned letter!) was that the Tory Government Budget back in June 2010 raised the rate of any 'fair market valuation' (at which you can purchase back the bike at the end of the lease period) from 5% up to 21% :-(

And, you guessed it, the change is retrospective :-((

But - all is not lost, as it appears you can just stay in the scheme and allow the bike to drop in market value ... and in another 4-years it will be negligible: assuming of course no future Tory budget makes any further retrospective changes!