Angel of the north

From here Tom Bloxham, founder and chief executive of one of the UK's most successful urban developers, looks out over a building site where five adjoining developments containing shops, offices, leisure facilities and 800 homes are taking shape. It's an archetypal Urban Splash project and represents what the urban renaissance is about for many people. It is also exactly the kind of development that the deputy prime minister hopes to see springing up all over the new northern growth corridors (HT 6 February, page 7). Indeed, Bloxham is just the kind of person John Prescott will need to enlist to convince young, affluent customers to set up home there, so it looks likely he'll be right at the heart of change as the northern Communities Plan takes shape.

Bloxham made his name investing in Liverpool and Manchester city centres in the early 1990s, when only a madman – or visionary – would. His success in turning them, and other run-down areas, back into fashionable addresses earned him an MBE at 34 and a £35m fortune that puts him at number 904 on the Sunday Times Rich List.

His attention has recently been diverted to "doughnuts", the run-down rings that often encircle otherwise prosperous city centres, though his fans believe he would have little difficulty translating his sales pitch to the new growth areas.

"What Urban Splash has done is show that good design creates value," says Chris Brown, chief executive of regeneration company Igloo. "I suspect it'll be able to recreate that message as well in the decaying suburbs as in the inner cities. It has a part to play in the growth areas."

Tom Manion, chief executive of Irwell Valley Housing Association, adds: "Pioneers like Bloxham really do make a difference. He's selling a lifestyle, changing perceptions."

Bloxham's approach is characterised not only by the highest standards of design but by a marketing drive that makes people believe his intervention can fundamentally change an area. It's this that other developers will have to catch up on if they want to emulate Urban Splash's success. "Most of them have taken on board the city centre agenda," says Bloxham. "The problem is not enough time is spent on design. The number of houses designed by architects is minimal, and that's where I think they really have to invest more – money and time."

Although his name has been synonymous with Urban Splash since he set it up 11 years ago, selling a lifestyle is only the latest of Bloxham's ventures. He began his career selling records and music posters while at university – his company started life as Splash Posters, then became Splash Leisure before turning into Urban Splash.

A friend from Manchester University, where Bloxham studied history and politics, says he was known as Arthur Daley and drove round campus in a Jaguar. Bloxham has just turned 40, but still sees himself as a bit of a rebel: "I plan to hang my MBE on the wall next to my Sex Pistols God Save the Queen posters."

Rebellion could be said to be at the root of Urban Splash's success, although Bloxham might prefer to call it "innovation". In a south London accent more than a little reminiscent of the wheeler dealer who inspired his university nickname, he says: "In everything we do, either as individuals or companies or society to challenge ourselves and say just because we've done this in this way for the last five years or 10 years, is it the right way? Then people have new ideas."

It's an area where he feels the social housing sector is lacking. "I think many housing providers have grown into very large bureaucratic organisations and some of them, like all bureaucracies, become self-serving after a while and I think some of that vigour and life, enthusiasm and ambition to try new ideas, is lacking."

Does he, then, support one of the newest ideas facing the sector: the government's decision to pay social housing grant to developers? "Yeah, absolutely. Who can build most efficiently: associations or developers? There's probably not much in it, but let's get some new ideas coming in, let's see some new ways of providing affordable housing."

Not everyone is unequivocally impressed with Urban Splash's approach to reviving rundown areas, however. From Bloxham's stylish office with its exposed concrete and white walls, he can see not only his latest development but the St George estate, as nasty a display of the mistakes of post-war social housing design as one could find. For his critics, this is an example of the way Bloxham's style of regeneration is failing as many people as it helps: they complain that the original residents of the areas he rejuvenates are often priced out.

Bloxham disagrees. "To talk about yuppies and gated communities – us and them – is, I think, very divisive. Communities work best when they're mixed. We have to fight very hard, even with the housing associations and the planners, when we suggest we want to pepper-pot social housing when we put it inside the building rather than separately."

He believes the benefits of regeneration spread beyond the borders of each new estate: "The people moving in here are not always rich, but articulate. They try to get the Metro moving, they've improved the towpath, they're trying to improve the street coverings, a whole load of shops have opened. A whole series of improvements."

It's these improvements that Bloxham believes are key to kick-starting the regeneration of an area and it's his understanding of these economics that will make him much sought-after when regional development agencies come to work out their game plan for the North. "Development is about accommodating demand, regeneration is about creating demand," he says. "There's a big difference there, a difference not everybody appreciates."