After fierce criticism from the construction industry, ministers in June set out a series of last-minute changes to a controversial protectionist steel policy announced just three months earlier. Ministers removed 11 commodity codes from the policy, and added two, based on new evidence of whether they were produced domestically. This means 181 steel products are subjected to tariffs this year, rather than 190 as initially planned. One building-sector source told Construction News the June changes were “the bare minimum the government could make and still say ‘we have listened to concerns’”. “UK steel production has more than halved in the last decade.