SALES of pre-paid funeral plans have reached a half-year record, with figures for the first six months to June 30 equalling the total for 2008.

The pre-paid funeral market grew by seven per cent in the first half of the year as 30,000 products were sold, data from the Funeral Planning Authority (FPA) has found.

The growth comes after 57,000 funerals in the UK were paid for by plans last year, out of a total of 567,468 deaths.

While the average funeral now costs about £3,500, the average funeral plan is currently priced at £3400, including funeral director costs.

Analysing the data, Golden Charter, the dominant provider of funeral plans in the UK, cited growing concern over covering the cost of funerals as a key driver growth.

The company itself enjoyed growth of 21 per cent over the period, boosting its market share to 41.7 per cent from 36.9 per cent at the same stage in 2013.

Chief executive Ronnie Wayte, who has targeted lifting turnover to more than £300 million in the firm's current financial year, admitted to some surprise at the pace of the growth seen by the firm.

But he said it has come at the expensive of its rivals, the two biggest of which are understood to be the corporate players The Co-operative Group and Dignity.

Mr Wayte, who has presided over an unbroken run of revenue growth in his seven years at the company, said: "We had a good six months, but it [data] actually says nobody else in the marketplace did.

"We are very positive about the overall result - 21 per cent net growth in the first six months of the year is great. The flip side of it is to take that market share and that growth, someone else must have gone backwards, and it can only be one or two corporates.

"That's the question on it as well - who is having the collapse? By virtue of the level, it either has to be Co-op or Dignity, and I suspect it is Co-op."

Based on the latest data, more than one in ten UK funerals are now pre-paid, taking the value of the funeral plan market in the UK to nearly £500m.

The figures also show that 72,279 funeral plans were sold in the first half of the year, just short of the 74,683 sold during the whole of 2008. It means there are now 909,091 people holding funeral plans in the UK, equating to a total investment of more than £3 billion.

Mr Wayte added: "You're seeing growing awareness on the cost of funerals, and people wanting to plan in advance.

"And I think the other side of it is a growing awareness that, if it was a bond, it was seven per cent growth.

"I heard an IFA [independent financial adviser] describe it the other day as a reverse bond. You are guaranteed a certain level of growth, but it is almost against a future price which you know is going up by seven per cent, but you are incurring the cost.

"So I think awareness of the financial benefit of it is growing as well."