Second most expensive place to die

Average funeral bill £4,586

Perth is the second most expensive place in Scotland for funeral prices with only Aberdeen the more costly, says a new report.

The figures, released by funeral comparison website Beyond, lists the top 50 costliest places in the UK, with Perth’s overall average cost at £4,586 per funeral, placing the Fair City in 25th position.

The cost for a service in Perth is more expensive than Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee - none of which made the top 50 list.

The calculation is made up from the cost of funeral director fees, basic wood veneer coffins, urns, flowers, the celebrant or minister, the hearse and limousine hire.

James Dunn, co-founder of Beyond, comments: “It looks like a football league but this is one table you don’t want to be topping.

“A lack of transparency in the funeral market is what’s fuelling price rises, particularly among the big chains.

“Death means big business, with half a million Brits dying every year, but a disinclination to shop around is resulting in mourners, who are often vulnerable, paying over the odds.”

In Scotland, Aberdeen ranks as the costliest, with an average funeral in the Granite City being £4942 - the next priciest Scottish cities after Perth are Inverness (£4495, 32nd) and Motherwell (£4245, 53rd).

Beyond said its extensive research is unique in being weighted to take account of the fact that cremations are more popular than burial, meaning these numbers are far more reflective of the true UK average funeral costs than others.

Watford is the most expensive place to have a funeral in the UK, at an average cost of £5814 - nudging London into second place at £5749.

Average costs for a Watford service is 37 per cent higher than the national average with London close behind, with Newport comfortably Wales’ priciest and Aberdeen well ahead of its Scottish counterparts.

Beyond also said high prices are being fuelled by price hikes imposed by the big chains, who have raised their already-high fees by more than £500 in two years, despite independent funeral directors reducing fees in the last year.

The average UK funeral - calculated as the average cost of a funeral director’s services plus the average price of cremations and burials - is now £4241.

This represents a rise of 33 per cent in only two years as in 2016, when the average was £3190.