Safety should be at the forefront of all decisions relating to building, and cutting costs cannot be a consideration, a senior university lecturer told Times Talk.

Ruben Paul Borg, who is a civil engineer, lectures on materials and structures and believes that building methods have to change if projects “go deeper and higher”.

He was interviewed following the collapse of an apartment block in Ħamrun, the second such incident in a week and the third in two months.

The closely-averted tragedies sent shockwaves through the sector and prompted the government to revise outdated building regulations.

Watch the full Times Talk as from Wednesday.