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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Julia Kollewe

High charges, poor service: NCP hits the skids as drivers change habits

NCP parking entrance sign in Bloomsbury, London
NCP operates 340 car parks across the UK. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Nearly a century old and once host to London fashion week, the NCP car park in Brewer Street in London’s Soho is facing an uncertain future. Its former glories – which at one time included separate rooms for chauffeurs and changing rooms for theatregoers – have long given way to complaints about a lack of security and high parking charges, but this week things got worse.

National Car Parks, one of the UK’s biggest car park operators, which dates back to 1931, filed for administration at the high court in London after struggling to pay its rents and buckling under a £305m mountain of debt. This means the future of 340 car parks across the UK, in town and city centres, at hospitals and airports, is uncertain along with the fate of 682 people who work for the Japanese-owned business.

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