The number of official escort firms, massage parlours and brothels in the Netherlands has fallen from 1,350 in 1999 to fewer than 400 now, says the sector association VER.

The decline is due to local government policy on restricting the sex industry and the difficulty some entrepreneurs are facing in getting financing, chairman Andre van Dorst told news agency ANP.
But while the legal sector is shrinking, there is an increase in the number of illegal sex firms, Van Dorst told ANP.
Earlier on Wednesday it emerged that the government is not planning to take steps to force banks to accept sex firms as clients.