The Metropolis

"Undertakers are getting away with murder" say campaigners, metaphorically

Mike Pollitt | Tuesday 25 October, 2011 11:28

The only certain things in life are death (above), taxes, and spiralling funeral costs. Campaigners in Teddington are outraged. [thislocallondon]

Prices in the industry have increased by 42 per cent in the last five years [2004-09] with a 22 per cent increase in 2009 alone.

And they claim the undertaking industry are taking advantage of the fact that they’re guaranteed work until the day we all drown. How? By forming uncompetitive mega-undertakers and stifling local competition.

When our father died, we ended up dealing with three different companies who we thought were three different firms, but they were all owned by the same one.

The figures rather back this up. The indispensible UK funerals online lists 241 funeral directors in London (that figure doesn’t cover all the outer boroughs). Almost all have independent sounding names (Wake and Paine in Twickenham will being most pleasing to nominative ironists).

But 118 of those 241 (49%) are part of either Dignity Plc or the Co-operative Group. Competitive much? I for one would like to see a (regulated, competitive) free market in the corpses of my loved ones. It’s the least they deserve.

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