Mourners hit by 36.5 percent crematorium price hike

New research has found that mourners who live in an area where the main crematorium has no competition face a price hike of 36.5 percent.

Funeral service comparison site Beyond found that those living in densely populated areas could save over eight percent on the national average. While those who lived in an area where the next nearest crematorium was over 7.5 miles away faced paying over the national average.

The average national cremation price has now risen to £784 but some crematoriums that have a “monopoly” according to Beyond, are charging up to £300 more than that. In the UK the 10 most expensive crematoriums all charge £1,070 and Beyond says “it is no coincidence that they are on average 14.4 miles from their nearest rival”.

Beyond says that crematoriums have created a “monopoly” as families do not want to travel long distances to get their loved ones cremated. Cremations make up 80 percent of all funerals with all but one of the UK’s top 20 most expensive crematoriums owned by Dignity.

The research comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced last week it was “reviewing the spiraling costs of funerals”.