Crying shame of funeral cheats let off the hook

Coronavirus has wreaked misery across the country. Loved ones have been lost, damaging recession has returned, jobs have been culled and we all face an uncertain future. 

Yet the executives of the companies that dominate the lucrative £2billion-a-year funerals market have a lot to thank the pandemic for. 

The virus has spared them from the radical market reform that seemed inevitable 18 months ago when the Competition and Markets Authority said it was launching an investigation into the industry. 

Last week, the authority said Covid-19 had forced it to abandon most of its radical – and consumer friendly – plans for change which could have seen the introduction of price caps on funerals. 

A crying shame. As we said early last year – and we say again today – no industry is more deserving of a root and branch overhaul. It’s been let off the hook. 

No wonder shares in Dignity, a dominant force in the market with 800 funeral parlours, jumped salmon-like in response. 

Although the CMA said it would press ahead with proposals requiring all funeral directors to be more transparent about their charges, the fact remains that the industry has got off lightly. Rigorous regulation remains a pipe dream rather than something that is going to happen in the near future. 

No wonder consumer champion James Daley of Fairer Finance is ‘astounded’ that the sector remains unregulated.

Where’s there’s a will there’s a way. But the CMA has been unwilling to protect grieving families from the avarice of huge chunks of the funeral industry. 

Shameful.