- 340+
- car parks before the administration
- 21
- closed straight away in March
- 145
- run under the NCP brand after the sale
- 276
- jobs saved by the sale, says PwC
What happened
On 16th March 2026 National Car Parks, trading since 1931 and running more than 340 car parks, went into administration. PwC was appointed. The administrators said demand had not recovered since the pandemic, and that long, inflexible leases on loss-making sites had left the company unable to cut its costs or meet its debts.
The car parks stayed open while PwC looked for a buyer. Twenty-one were closed in March as unviable, and more followed at the end of April. On 8th October 2026 PwC announced the sale of the business to Martin Property Group, a family property firm from Derry. The deal covers 93 NCP sites in Britain, with 52 more car parks run under the NCP brand, which the new owner now holds. NCP's two Belfast multi-storeys were not part of it.
Despite its difficulties post-pandemic, NCP is an iconic brand with a loyal customer base and talented workforce.
Do you still have to pay?
As a rule, yes. A parking charge is money the driver, or the keeper, owes the operator under the terms on the signs. Administration is a process for dealing with what a company owes to others. It does not wipe out what others owe the company: the administrators collect those debts for its creditors, and they can sell them with the business.
So a charge issued before March, during the administration or since the sale should be treated as live, and the deadlines on it as running. The terms of the sale have not been published, so we cannot say whether older charges are now chased by NCP under its new owner, by the administrators, or by a debt collector acting for one of them.
What to check before you pay anyone
Who the creditor is. A Notice to Keeper has to identify the creditor, the company the money is owed to. If later letters name a different company from your notice, ask in writing who is now owed the money and on what basis before you pay. It also protects you from scam letters riding on the news.
Whose name was on the signs. If your car park was one of the sites that closed or passed to another operator, check whose name was on the signs on the day. The charge has to come from the company you contracted with, or from someone it lawfully passed the debt to.
Your deadlines. Nothing we have seen pauses them. Appeal within the time on your notice, and if NCP rejects it, the next stage is still POPLA.
Everything that decides an NCP appeal on its merits is unchanged: whether a posted notice arrived in time, whether it contains what Schedule 4 requires, and whether the tariff and signs matched what you were charged. Our NCP appeal guide covers each of them.
Our priority on appointment is to ensure continuity of service while we undertake a detailed review of the business.