Sustainable funding and long-term certainty are needed so local authorities can meet rising demand for public health funerals (PHFs), council bosses have said.
The Local Government Association (LGA) found councils in England delivered 4,400 PHFs in 2022-23 at a cost of £5.96m.
It marks a 13% rise since 2021-22, when there were 3,900 of the funerals, costing £5.63m.
Councils arrange a PHF when a resident dies outside of hospital and no relatives are found, or the family is unable to pay for a funeral.
The chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, Heather Kidd, said: ‘The rising number of public health funerals is a clear example of how councils are having to do more with less, while also continuing to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are treated with dignity.
‘Councils need long-term certainty and sustainable funding to ensure that PHFs, along with other essential services, can continue to be delivered to the high standard required.’
