3. Critical judgements in applying accounting policies - Notes to the core accounting statements

In applying the accounting policies set out in Note 1, the Authority has had to make certain judgements about complex transactions or those involving uncertainty about future events. The critical judgements made in the Statement of Accounts are:

The Government will provided indicative settlement figures for future years as part of the funding settlement in Autumn 2021. There remains the possibility that funding for local government organisations will be further reduced. Despite this there is no indication that the assets of the Authority might be impaired as a result of a need to close facilities and reduce levels of service provision. The Authority has a balanced budget for 2021/22 and is anticipating to contain spending within this budget. The Authority is in a strong financial position to allow it to properly plan for any reductions in budgets over the next three years should this be required.

The Authority has valued its Fire Stations at depreciated replacement cost, as there is no market based evidence of fair value due to the specialised nature of the assets.