Developers of new housing complexes find themselves stymied by local authority regulations which stipulate there must be one or more parking spaces for every new housing unit, the Volkskrant reported on Friday.

A number of projects in the large cities in the Randstad western urban agglomeration have been stalled in recent years because of the rules, the paper said.

A report by Zuid-Holland provincial authority said the inflexible parking requirements were a ‘major cause’ for delays in local projects. And in schemes which are actually completed, there are fewer housing units because of the need for parking space, it said.

Local authorities themselves determine how many parking spaces each new housing unit must have. In inner cities that is often far lower than in the suburbs, but fearing parking problems many still stipulate that every new housing unit must have parking facilities.

The provincial council is asking local authorities to ease these regulations, especially in areas with good bus, tram or train connections. Moreover, car ownership is declining in city centres due to the rise of shared cars or electric bicycles, it said.