The Department highlighted that its recent work has rightly focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which it introduced protections through a temporary restriction on eviction proceedings. The Department told us it continues to monitor the situation as restrictions are lifted. Landlords have also suffered during the pandemic, for example through a loss in rent payments. The Department has limited insight into these issues, or what the knock-on consequences may mean for the affordability or supply of rented homes within the sector if landlords exit the market or increase rents.58