Swedish post-war prefabricated houses were a response to the housing shortage in Great Britain following the Second World War. 5,000 homes were built from kits made in Sweden and assembled on site. The first of these houses were built at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, in January 1946. The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 planned the building of 300,000 prefab houses in Britain over the next four years. They were to have a structural lifetime of between 10 and 15 years. In the end just over 150,000 were built. They were a gift of the Swedish government. They are an example of the use of "prefabs'" to deal with the post-war housing shortage in the UK. Many survive to this day and some have become listed buildings.