returning from the conflict resulted in housing shortages that continued into the next decade. No attempt was made to introduce any form of rent decontrol. The Building Materials and Housing Act 1945, which was passed on 20 December 1945, limited selling and letting prices for certain houses. The Act increased the amount of loan Treasury could raise under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 to £200M. Local authorities were enabled to grant loans to acquire or construct homes costing up to £1,500 each. Permitted Rent A house or a flat constructed under building licence under the Defence Regulations made under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Acts 1939-1945 could be subject to a condition limiting the price for sale or rent (the "permitted rent"). The 1945 Act imposed a time limit of four years (subsequently raised in 1949 to eight years) during which a breach of the limit rendered the transgressor liable to a fine up to the aggregate of:- a) the financial gain from the offence; b) a fine of £l00; or c) imprisonment for up to three months, or to both a fine and imprisonment. Furnished lettings A second committee set up in 1943 under Viscount Ridley to review the working of the rent restriction Acts formed a very favourable opinion of the Rent of Furnished Houses Control (Scotland) Act 1943 and recommended that England and Wales should follow suit. The Furnished Houses (Rent Control) Act 1946 established a separate system of protection—modelled on Scottish legislation that involved rent tribunals setting reasonable rents—for contracts referred to them for furnished lettings. Previously these had not been subject to any effective control under the Rent Acts. Scope of Control Initially, the 1943 and 1946 Acts applied, irrespective of the dwelling's rateable value or the rent. ln England and Wales, local authorities were required to keep registers of the rents so determined (registers were maintained by the tribunals themselves in Scotland). This system was quite separate from the general rules as to control under the principal Acts. Furniture The rent had to include payment for the use of furniture or for services (which included attendance and any other privilege such as the right to a cycle storage space). The provision of board (but only if it formed a substantial part of the rent) took the letting outside the jurisdiction of the Rent Tribunal. Both the 1943 and 1946 Acts were temporary measures but