Why the UK is running out of burial plots

The country's graveyards and cemeteries are close to capacity, and Britain is running out of places to bury our dead.

The "death care sector" is "creaking" as it struggles to keep up with the steadily increasing death rate "of an ageing population", said The Telegraph, and officials are being forced to consider ever more "unpalatable" solutions.

'Disturb human remains'

In 2021, The Times predicted that cemeteries in a quarter of local councils would be full in "10 years or less" , while "almost one in six" councils would have full cemeteries within five years. And, last week, The Telegraph confirmed that burial space is already "running out" across England and Wales, with "anecdotal evidence" suggesting that pandemic pressures have only "exacerbated the issue".

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And cremation is not the obvious solution it might seem: although 78% of of British funerals are cremations, said BBC Science Focus, many relatives "like the idea of having somewhere to visit to pay their respects, remember and mourn the dead", so "ashes are often buried or interred".

The Law Commission has called Britain's burial laws "outdated, piecemeal and complex" and is considering "the reuse and reclaiming of all types of burial grounds", said The Telegraph.

Back in March, Bishop's Stortford became the "first town outside London" to permit graves on non-consecrated land to be re-used. Defending the controversial move to "disturb human remains", a spokesperson said that if the council had "done nothing and nature had taken its course, within 12 years there would be no space left" in the town for people to be buried.

Graves can currently only be reused "if they are at least 75 years old". But the graves of people who died such a long time ago "tend not to get many visitors", said BBC Science Focus, so the recently deceased "can be laid to rest on top with very little fuss". As well as saving space, this approach, which is "commonplace in Germany", means families can be buried in the same graveyards – a "final request that is increasingly difficult to honour".

Squeamishness won't help

Meanwhile, other problems in the death care sector are also creating capacity issues above ground. Difficulty securing time slots at crematoria and delays in an "under-resourced" coroner service mean families are waiting longer for their loved one's body to be buried or cremated, said The Telegraph.

This means bodies have to be stored somewhere above ground for longer periods. Last year, "almost half of the funeral directors in England" warned that their storage capacity for deceased people was "under pressure". The system is "stretched to the point of bursting", Deborah Smith, from the National Association of Funeral Directors, told the paper.

A reluctance to talk about death risks letting things get worse, said The Telegraph. Our "instinctive squeamishness" about "discussing the business of dealing with the dead" won't help solve the problems the sector is facing.