CMA funeral probe must consign price gouging to the grave

There’s nothing more contemptible than ripping off people who are grieving. But it happens a lot because they’re vulnerable, which that makes it easy.

The Competition & Markets Authority is to be commended for explicitly recognising that with its launch of a full-scale investigation into whether the funeral industry is at it.

It was always coming. The figures the watchdog produced when it first started looking into the sector made it all but inevitable.

The cost of organising a funeral have risen at more than twice the rate of inflation over the last 14 years. Prices charged by crematoria have appreciated at an even faster rate over the last eight.

Last year’s average outlay was £4,300. The typical cremation cost £3,744, a burial £4,798, with either option representing a gut punch at the worst possible time, particularly for those of limited means. Funeral costs can now eat up 40 per cent of the annual expenditure of someone on a low income.

The situation is frankly obscene, and while providers such as Co-op have moved to act on prices in response to the CMA’s involvement, it won’t be corrected quickly.

The investigation could take 18 months to complete. However, when it is done there is the prospect of legal remedies that might improve the situation.

That’s where the challenge comes in.

There are many markets in which a regulator can relatively easily assist the consumer with making good choices, when it is possible to provide them with improved tools with which to assess the options and choose the best for them.

The structure of the funeral market could make that quite difficult. It has a couple of big players. One is the stock market listed Dignity, which was the subject of some sharp comments about the link between rising prices and shareholders’ expectations in the CMA’s earlier work. The other is the aforementioned Co-operative Group. Combined, they handle roughly one in four of the more than 600,000 funerals that take place in this country each year.

There are several other large groups, which include a number of regional co-operatives, operating alongside thousands of small family run outfits, many of which try hard to offer their clients a fair deal.

Such a diverse market doesn’t lend itself well to a sort of “comparethefuneral.com” that would facilitate easy price comparison. Nor, really, does the product, which is inevitably sold at a time when consumers are at a low ebb, and when their radars are apt to be on the blink.

The phrase “the nanny state” is often deployed derisively when government and/or regulatory agencies attempt to hold people’s hands. This is a case where a little nannying is both justified and necessary.

Nanny also needs a pair knuckledusters. Dignity, for one, said it welcomed the investigation, but the shares fell indicating that investors are approaching it with a degree nervousness.

So they should. They’ve had their noses in this trough for too long. It’s time for the bell to toll on the high cost of funerals.