Council-organised funerals have more than doubled in Lambeth — raising concerns about deprivation and the soaring cost of dying in the capital.
‘Public health funerals’ are carried out by local authorities when no prior arrangements have been made and there are no relatives willing or able to pay for a service.
According to data on Lambeth Council’s website, the number of public health funerals has risen from 55 in 2022-23 to 114 in 2023-24.
The increase forms part of a wider growth in the number of council funerals in London relative to the rest of the country.
Experts cite funeral costs far above the national average, as well as rising poverty and more people — especially men — dying without next of kin.
Kate Woodthorpe, co-director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, said: “There is a really desperate need to know more about public health funerals, because they are kind of like the ultimate backstop.
“They are so symbolic of the role of local authorities or the state — that someone will step in to look after you if you end up in such a marginalised position that you’ve either got no money or family.”
Public health funerals are normally carried out by the council, with local hospitals occasionally taking on the responsibility, and involve a short service that mourners can attend, before ashes are returned to the family in the case of cremation.
However, an absence of legal minimum standards means that provisions can vary greatly between different local authorities.
Lindesay Mace, co-manager of Down to Earth, a funeral advice service run by Quaker Social Action, said: “There are some councils that deny people these things, they will have a direct cremation, so no one can attend.
“They will refuse to give the ashes back to anybody.
“That can cause really significant distress for people, and we have experienced ourselves and supported clients where councils refuse to carry out a burial when it’s very clear that the person who died wanted to be buried and didn’t want to be cremated.”
Lambeth Council’s website explains they arrange burials or cremations for people who die in the borough ‘where satisfactory arrangements would not otherwise be made’, and that average costs range from £1,800 to £6,000.
The rise in public health funerals comes alongside the climbing cost of organising a private ceremony in London, where land is at a premium and the price of burial is high.
According to financial services company SunLife, the average funeral in the capital now costs £5,449, a 5.4% increase from the previous year, and 27% more than the average for the rest of the UK — while Down to Earth says it has seen a 63% increase in calls and emails to its helpline.
In 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority published a report following its investigation into the funeral sector which found that price rises for funeral directors and crematoria had been ‘well in excess’ of general inflation for an extended period of time.
Rebecca Tickle, chief operating officer at London funeral directors Poppy’s, said rising prices have been caused by higher costs across the board, including for suppliers like local florists and crematoria paying more for fuel.
She said: “A lot of funeral directors are small businesses as well, and so we’re facing the same costs in terms of heating our buildings and the services that we’re buying in.
“I don’t think it’s a funeral sector issue per se. I think it is a cost of living issue.”
Recent years have also seen a marked increase in people opting for low-cost ‘direct cremations’, in which a person is cremated without a service and no mourners attend — rising from 3% of all funerals to 20% between 2019 and 2023.
Mace said she is not unsympathetic to the impact of rising costs, but notes that funeral prices have risen significantly above the rate of inflation for over a decade.
She added: “Those excessive increases are kind of baked into the costs now and are no less outrageous than they were when they happened.
“The reality for bereaved people is they’re still facing prices that are higher than they really should be and higher than they would have been if, across all of that time, they had risen at a more reasonable rate in line with inflation.”
As a result, Down to Earth is currently campaigning for the government to expand the eligibility rules for the Funeral Expenses Payment (FEP), which is available to people who receive income-related benefits to help cover funeral costs.
Areas with higher rates of homelessness and income deprivation among older people are also more likely to see public health funerals.
A recent study carried out by the ESRC Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton found there was a ‘clear link’ between public health funerals and poverty.
It also found that Lambeth had the second highest number of public health funerals in the country.
According to the Trust for London, Lambeth scores high for the number of rough sleepers in the borough, while a 2019 council report said that 30% of adults over 60 experienced income deprivation — more than double the national average.
Mace said: “As with everything poverty related, it comes back to recognizing that all these different types of poverty, they are just different types of poverty, and trying to address each one individually will never work without looking at the whole.”
Another explanation is changing demographic patterns which show an increasing number of older people, mostly men, dying without next of kin.
In 2024, 62% of local councils reported an absence of family or friends as the most common reason for needing a public health funeral, according to a survey by the Local Government Association (LGA).
This appears to be particularly stark for men, who the ESRC say accounted for two-thirds of all public health funerals between 2014 and 2020.
Woodthorpe believes this number is likely only to increase, she said: “People’s families and social networks are changing, which means they are more vulnerable to dying alone or without people around to do it.”
As the number of public health funerals continues to grow, so will the amount of public money spent by local authorities.
Between 2019 and 2023, councils spent over £21million on public health funerals, while the total number of services rose by 47% between 2015 and 2021.
Woodthorpe cautioned that, without an effective solution, some may begin to question the fairness of spending increasing amounts of taxpayer money on public health funerals, when others have contributed to insurance schemes or pre-paid funeral plans.
However, she added: “The reality is there’s going to be a large number of people who just can’t — so what do you do?
“It’s a really tricky one, but how you handle it is also quite indicative, I think, about how you regard the role of the state in supporting its most vulnerable citizens.”
Lambeth Council did not respond to requests for comment.
Featured image credit: The Good Funeral Guide
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