Over 20 town and city centre car parks have closed as the company running them crashes into administration.

After 95 years, NCP has become one of the UK’s biggest operators with around 340 car parks nationwide. But it has now appointed administrators at PwC, with 683 jobs at risk. NCP’s financial performance has been hit by a post-Covid dip in demand for parking, which has not yet recovered to historic levels, especially across city-centre and commuter locations, the firm said. It partly blamed this on changes in commuting and consumer driving patterns, which have affected occupancy across its car parks. The company also said it struggled with costs linked to long-term and inflexible leases on loss-making sites. Some or all of NCP may be put up for sale as one option to secure its future.

Earlier this month, PWC said that 22 sites are ‘unviable’ and will be closed. Zelf Hussain, Rachael Wilkinson and Toby Banfield of PwC were appointed as joint administrators of National Car Parks Limited.

In a statement, they said: “Following an initial assessment of operations, the joint administrators have identified 22 sites that are commercially unviable and will therefore be closed to customers from 11:59pm on March 27.

“Regrettably, due to the closure of these sites, 31 employees will be made redundant on March 31. They will be supported through the statutory redundancy payments process. The other 318 car parks remain open, and there are no further sites identified for closure at this time.