Bereaved families in the Oxford area may be a little less pleased to know that the cost of having a relative cremated at their local Dignity owned crematorium will be £999 from next week onwards.
Just a short journey towards London, a cremation at South West Middlesex Crematorium will cost £490 (source Funeralbooker report on UK Cremation Costs here).
We wonder whether it is just Oxford, or all 43 Dignity owned and operated crematoria that are hiking up their prices?
Quoting from Dignity’s Annual Reports & Accounts 2015:
“We are the largest single operator of crematoria in Britain with a growing portfolio of well-established and state of the art crematoria that meet the needs of the local communities we serve. In 2015, we carried out 57,700 cremations representing 9.8 per cent of total estimated deaths in Britain”
57,000 x £999…… just under £56 million according to the GFG intern who was a whizz at maths.
Funeral poverty anyone?
Alas, Dignity owned Basingstoke crematorium is also going for a grand, we had the letter today.
I think the research Funeral Booker did into the costs of crematoriums will show that out of the top 10, (nine were owned by Dignity) all of them will be hitting the £999 figure in the next few weeks.
Hi Lucy
seems to me that when Dignity have one of their ‘key Crem’s’ losing out to new trade, i.e.:-
http://www.southoxfordmemorial.co.uk/
the logical step as far as they are concerned is to ramp up the prices
and btw congratulations on your recent award (on here)
regards
andrew
We’re going to be calling the Dignity crems in the next few days to get the updated pricing (presumably all upwards…).
If anyone has prices for their local Dignity please email them in. We will still call them it just provides a good double check for us.
Thanks! James Dunn
james@funeralbooker.com
Well, I’m pleased to say that Aberdeen Crematorium (council) froze prices at£693.00, this year, gave a small reduction for non attendance cremations, implemented Saturday services if required and has increased service lengths.
That’s amazing. I wish they would do that down here!
£999, Surrey & Sx