Private rented sector

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The private rented sector (PRS) is a classification of United Kingdom housing tenure as described by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, a UK government department that monitors the national housing supply.

Other classifications are:

• Owner-occupied
• Rented from registered social landlords (housing association)
• Rented from local authorities

In 2014 the private rented sector consisted of 2.7 million dwellings in the United Kingdom, or some 10 percent of the total housing stock. Of this total, 2.4 m were in England, representing 12 percent of the English housing stock. The sector had grown by over 10 percent in the previous ten years and, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, was forecast to grow by a further 40 percent over the coming ten years ^{[citation needed]}. However, government measures introduced by George Osborne as Chancellor of the Exchequer were aimed at reducing its size, and the sector began to shrink in 2017.