Cost of burials and cremations set to soar in Southampton

Cremation and burial fees in Southampton are to rocket again – making the city the most expensive place in which to die in the south.

Hikes in charges set to be approved next week will mean they will have shot up by almost 50 per cent in little over a year.

Funeral directors and pressure groups for the elderly have called the rise a ‘tax on the dead’.

The Conservative party plans to plug a £8m budget hole cremation fees at the council owned crematorium will rise by £50 to £650, after they were hiked by £150 last January. Cremations now account for more than seven out of ten funerals. Meanwhile burial fees will rise by 22 per cent, from £403 to £500, after they were pumped up from £336 last April.

Last year the council claimed it needed £85 from the £150 cremation fee hike to help buy four new cremators and mercury abatement facilities to cut polluting emissions. The remaining £65 went into council coffers.