Survey of the Funeral Trade
The Natural Death Handbook 4th edition
PRESS RELEASE: The Natural Death Handbook, published by the charitable project, the Natural Death Centre, acts as a funeral watchdog on behalf of the consumer.
The following are the main conclusions from its survey for the latest edition (published by Rider on November 6th '03, and available from NDC for £14.99 incl. p&p by cheque; or click here or phone 0871 288 2098 to order it with a credit card for £15.50 incl. 1st class p&p; Press copies from Rider Books please, tel 020 7840 8750).
Natural burial grounds
The rate at which new natural burial grounds are opening is impressive. In 1993, there was only one such ground known to the Natural Death Centre; by January 1997 there were 52; by May 2000 there were 100; and by July 2003 there were 182.
Of these 182 natural burial grounds (all of which are detailed in Chapter 6 of the Natural Death Handbook), 115 are run by local authorities, 57 are run as businesses by farmers or private individuals, and ten are run as charitable or non-profit concerns. (45 of the 182 are not yet open but are at various stages in the planning process.) The cost of a grave, including the digging and usually a tree, ranges from £172 at Seaton in Devon to £1,900 at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. The average cost is £612-68. The average cost for the council-run sites is £631-76 (with most charging considerably more for non-residents); for the sites run as businesses the average cost is £577-36.
Cardboard coffins
When the Natural Death Centre was launched in 1991, it called for cardboard coffins to be made available in the UK. Nowadays there are seven different models to choose from. The first edition of the Natural Death Handbook in 1993 could identify only a handful of crematoria and cemeteries that would accept cardboard coffins, but now almost every crematorium accepts them; and most funeral directors are willing to obtain a cardboard coffin on behalf of a client, although they will tend to charge a high price. Cardboard coffins are now available to the public direct from the wholesalers from £55 including overnight delivery. A regular coffin can be almost as cheap. Indeed the funeral directors Roger Gillman of J.E. Gillman & Sons will sell to a member of the public organising a funeral for themselves a chipboard-based lightly veneered coffin, 'without handles or fancy lining, just cremfilm, using wood from managed sustained-yield forests' for a mere £60. Delivery free within five miles of their premises in London SW17.
Coffins from funeral directors
The Natural Death Handbook circulated a questionnaire to 2,400 funeral directors for its 2003 edition. Of the 104 (excluding branches of the same firm) who deigned to reply - mostly the small independent firms - all except five are prepared to sell just a coffin to a member of the public, without other services, at prices ranging from £65 to £375 for the cheapest fully-fitted coffin. The resultant average price for a coffin is £149-60. This is a big improvement since the Centre's 1993 survey, which found a mere 45 funeral directors (53% of all respondents) willing to sell just coffins.
The cost of a basic funeral
The Natural Death Handbook survey for its 2003 edition found that a basic funeral now costs from £400 to £1,250, with an average of £753 - an increase of 28.8% on the £585 figure for 2000. This seems a remarkable jump compared to an increase of only 9% in the average coffin price in the same period. (Funeral directors are often not very keen to tell the public about their low end funerals. As a member of the public, you may have to use the magic words 'Simple funeral as specified in your funeral code' to be told this low price. There will be no frills, for instance just a hearse with no following limousine.) To this £753, which represents the funeral director's charges, need to be added the so-called 'disbursements' paid out on behalf of the client by the funeral director: the cremation fee (averaging £284), doctors' fees (£101) and minister's fee (normally £90), an average extra total for disbursements of £465 (assuming it is a cremation). Thus the average complete cost for a basic funeral is currently £1,218 with cremation or £1,590 with a burial. However, it should be noted that there are wide regional variations, especially where the cost of a burial plot is concerned.
Pre-paid funeral plans
Of the pre-paid funeral plans, the Natural Death Handbook concluded that possibly the least objectionable of the mass market plans is Golden Charter, since it is specifically designed for the small, independent funeral directors and their association SAIF, the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (some of whom are also members of the larger National Association of Funeral Directors). It claims to have over 2,100 participating funeral directors. Golden Charter's cheapest Standard Way plan costs £1,325, which allows £525 towards the costs of disbursements (a sum which increases with the Retail Price Index). If disbursements cost more than this at the time of the plan's purchase, the extra sum can be paid then to ensure full future cover. The Woodland Trust is paid to plant a tree for each plan bought.
Crematoria
One off-putting aspect of crematoria is the sense of being led along a factory conveyor belt: In - 30 minutes - Out - Next. Of the 132 respondents to the Natural Death Handbook's survey of 243 crematoria nationwide, 44 excellent crematoria break the 30-minute norm and allow 45-minute services; three superb crematoria, the one in Aberystwyth, the one in Banbury, and the other in Cinderford (Gloucestershire) allow 60 minutes; and most of the other crematoria allow the purchase of extra time at a reduced price.
Most crematoria are run by local authorities and have reasonable fees, although these fees are being sharply increased in many places to finance the cost of new facilities that meet stringent EC anti-pollution requirements. These will cost the average crematorium at least half a million pounds; as a result, some of the local authority operations are beginning to sell out to the larger private firms. For instance, Dignity (UK) already owns 21 (8.7%) of the 243 crematoria in the UK, despite the undesirability of a firm that sells funerals in an area also controlling its crematoria.
At present, the cheapest crematorium that meets our other criteria for inclusion is Woodvale (Brighton & Hove) Crematorium (£185 for 45 minutes at certain times of the day). The most expensive is West Bromwich crematorium (£325 for 20 minutes). The average price for a cremation is £284, as against £225 in 2000 (an increase of 26%).
As mentioned, the Natural Death Handbook questionnaire was circulated to all 243 crematoria in the country. Our main interest lay in finding out how helpful they were to people organising a funeral without using a funeral director. Of the 114 who replied, every single one is prepared to deal directly with a family, with no funeral director involvement - whereas in 1993, 8% said that they would deal only with funeral directors. Virtually all say that they will accept a home-made coffin, if it meets all the anti-pollution requirements and if everything is done 'in a dignified manner without disturbance to other mourners or to staff' - this is a significant improvement on the figure of 19% in 1993. Cardboard coffins are now accepted by virtually all UK crematoria - as against a mere 15% in 1993. The majority of the crematoria will accept basket coffins; 53% will accept body bags (if supported on a piece of wood and covered with a drape); 50% will accept a body in a shroud (if the shroud is kept rigid with a piece of wood).
Cemeteries
The Natural Death Handbook wrote to over 800 cemeteries, and of the 230 respondents (some administering several cemeteries) deemed worthy for inclusion in the book's Good Funeral Guide section, all will accept burial by the family without involving funeral directors. Nearly all will accept a suitable home-made wooden coffin or one of the manufactured cardboard coffins. 74% will accept bamboo or wicker coffins. 56% will accept body bags, if supported on a plank and covered with a drape. 61% will accept shrouds (are the other 60% discriminating against those religious belief systems that require shrouds?).
Just as house prices vary by region, so too do the rights to a burial plot. The Natural Death Handbook's survey found that, including the cost of digging the grave, the prices range from £142 at Lon Newydd Cemetery in Anglesey to £2,500 at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking. The average price for the cheapest individual plot in a cemetery is £656 (incl. digging) as against £524 in 2000 (a 25% increase). Some also charge non-residents either extra, double, treble or even quadruple the normal price. The most expensive in 2000, Highgate cemetery in London, will no longer quote a price for publication.
For further information about this survey or the 41 Natural Death Handbook 2003 Awards that were presented on the National Day of the Dead on 18 April 2004, please contact the Natural Death Centre, 12a Blackstock Mews, Blackstock Road, London, UK (tel 0871 288 2098; e-mail: contact@naturaldeath.org.uk). The Natural Death Handbook is available from the Natural Death Centre for £14.99 incl. p&p by cheque, or first class by online order.
