Funeral market reforms pushed back because of Covid in 'awful irony'

Funeral price controls have been delayed in the wake of Covid, the watchdog has announced despite admitting that the sector does not work well for the bereaved.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Thursday that the outcome of its investigation into the funeral market will be delayed because of the pandemic.

Its report found that the average cost of a funeral has increased by just over £1,000 in a decade - far higher than the rate of inflation.

It said that funeral providers will need to display the prices of services more clearly to allow consumers to shop around, but other remedies, including price controls and regulation, have been pushed back.

Martin Coleman, of the CMA, said that coronavirus was causing a “tragic increase in death rates and has materially changed how funerals are carried out”.

He added: “This has had a big impact on how far we can immediately address some of the issues we have identified.”

Rosie Cooper, a Labour MP on a parliamentary panel on funerals, it was an “awful irony” that while families were dealing with bereavement because of Covid-19, it was the virus which was slowing the reforms.

She added: “For years families have not only had to deal with the heartache of losing a loved one but also they have suffered the huge financial burden when trying to arrange funerals, cremation and burials.

“The Government and the CMA need to sort the issue of funeral costs out urgently.”

Lindesay Mace, acting manager of Down to Earth, part of Quaker Social Action specialising in funeral poverty, said she was “delighted” that the CMA had recognised the problems in the industry.

But she added: “It is deeply disappointing that price controls are not being implemented at this time and we will seek to hold the CMA to their promise of revisiting this in the future.”

Mr Coleman said that further change in the sector is “necessary” but some of the considered remedies “could not be safely introduced in the middle of a national emergency”.

He said: “Our proposals will hold open the door to price controls when circumstances created by the pandemic change sufficiently to permit these to be considered.”