From its commencement in 1919, the Bank's policy in relation to the acquisition of Land and Premises for its branches was that of outright purchase. This policy was consistently applied throughout much of the Bank's existence, only in later years were premises rented on a limited basis. No policy was stated in the early published accounts regarding Depreciation, and this seems to have been charged on an ad hoc basis until 1944, when the value of Land and Premises was depreciated to leave just a nominal value of £1,000 on the Balance Sheet. From 1954 to 1978, a policy of writing-off all Capital Expenditure in the year in which it was incurred was followed, except that in 1977 and 1978 the Bank's proportion of the assets held by the West Midlands and South Wales Trustee Savings Banks' Computer Consortium were shown. In 1979, in anticipation of the Bank's amalgamation with TSB of the Midlands, the 'practice of writing out capital expenditure on premises and equipment in the year in which it was incurred' was discontinued.

The 1979 Annual Report continued by declaring the new Accounting Policy on Depreciation as follows:

 

 

However, for the sake of consistency and clarification, the 1979 figures in the table below, assume that the expenditure in that year was fully written-off. The actual data for that year is reproduced at Premises and Equipment 1979.

 

The Depreciation of Furniture and Equipment in the early years of the Bank's existence followed the same policy as described above for Land and Premises. At March 31st 1942, the value of Furniture and Equipment had been completely written-off. As with Land and Premises, no expenditure was incurred in the remaining years of the Second World War, and then £16,780 was spent in 1947, in installing an additional 5,888 safes in the Head Office Safe Deposit. From 1952 to 1978, all expenditure on Furniture and Equipment was written-off in the year it was incurred.

 

During the Bank's existence, the years of major Capital Expenditure were in 1933 and 1934 for the new Head Office in Broad Street; in 1947 for the Safe Deposit extension referred to in the previous paragraph; and in early 1970s for computer equipment. Details of the latter are shown at Computer Financing.

 

The following table details the amounts shown in each of the Bank's Annual Reports re Fixed Assets:

 

 

                                                                        

Total Written Down Value (£)

Written Down Value  1920 1,938  1921 2,563  1922 17,889  1923 34,272  1924 58,770  1925 68,189  1926 83,470  1927 96,088  1928 111,809  1929 127,250  1930 117,646  1931 118,760  1932 119,583  1933 168,333  1934 194,110  1935 164,307  1936 152,930  1937 135,231  1938 115,369  1939 87,059  1940 73,552  1941 72,197  1942 54,205  1943 27,685  1944 1,000  1945 1,000  1946 1,000  1947 19,794  1948 19,794  1949 19,618  1950 12,353  1951 6,677  1952 1,000  1953 1,000  1954 1,000  1955 0  1956 0  1957 0  1958 0  1959 0  1960 0  1961 0  1962 0  1963 0  1964 0  1965 0  1966 0  1967 0  1968 0  1969 0  1970 0  1971 0  1972 0  1973 0  1974 0  1975 0  Mar 1976 0  Nov 1976 0  1977 0  1978 0  1979* 0       0