Company behind survey says average cost of a funeral has risen by 33% in past two years

Watford is the most expensive place in the UK to have a funeral, according to research that also says the average cost of a funeral in Britain has risen by 33% in the past two years.

Seven towns and cities have average funeral costs of more than £5,000, according to the survey conducted by the funeral price comparison site Beyond. The UK average is £4,241, up from £3,190 in 2016, it found.

After Watford, in Hertfordshire, where funerals cost £5,814 on average, the next most expensive places are London, Redhill and Guildford in Surrey, Liverpool, Newport and Brighton.

The cheapest place for funerals is Derby – the only area where the average cost is below £3,000. Funerals can be arranged in Swansea, Stockport and Belfast for an average of £3,100 or less.

Funeral costs were worked out on the basis of funeral directors’ fees, a basic wooden veneer coffin, urn, flowers, celebrant or minister, hearse and one limousine, plus fees charged for burial plots or by crematoriums. The data was weighted to take into account a 70:30 ratio of cremations to burials.

According to Beyond, some big funeral companies have increased their charges by more than £500 in the past two years. In contrast, most independent funeral directors had reduced their fees over the past 12 months, it said.

Cremation fees had risen from £715 to £783 as a national average since 2016, and burial fees from £1,666 to £1,857.

James Dunn, of Beyond, said: “A lack of transparency in the funeral market is what’s fuelling prices, particularly among the big chains. Death means big business, with half a million Brits dying every year. But a disinclination to shop around is resulting in mourners, who are often vulnerable, paying over the odds.”

The Co-op, the UK’s biggest funeral provider, disputed Beyond’s research. It said its own data showed the average funeral cost, including third-party fees, to be about £3,900.

A spokesperson said: “Over recent years, we have taken a number of steps to lead the way in tackling funeral affordability. We conduct almost 100,000 funerals every year, and our average funeral cost including third-party fees is significantly lower than the figures quoted. We have also introduced a new lower-priced choice funeral option this year, which is priced at £1,395, including third-party costs.”

Dignity, the second-biggest funeral chain in the UK, also owns more than 45 private crematoria. It announced this month it would close about 100 of its 800 funeral parlours over the next 10 years in an effort to reduce costs in a competitive market.

A spokesperson said that Dignity had frozen the cost of its full service funerals and cut by 25% the cost of its no-frills service.