Tom Bloxham (property developer)
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20 December 1963
Tom Bloxham CBE | |
|---|---|
| Chancellor of the University of Manchester | |
| In office 1 August 2008 – 1 August 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Anna Ford and Terry Leahy |
| Succeeded by | Lemn Sissay |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Paul Richard Bloxham 20 December 1963 Fleet, Lincolnshire,[1] England |
| Alma mater | Victoria University of Manchester |
| Profession | Chairman and Co-Founder, Urban Splash |
| Salary | £150,000 plus dividends.[2] |
Thomas Paul Richard Bloxham CBE (born 20 December 1963) is a British property developer, founder of award winning urban renewal property development company Urban Splash and the modern housebuilder House by Urban Splash - companies which have won 450 awards to date for architecture, design and business success.
In 1999 Bloxham was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours for Services to Architecture and Urban Regeneration.[3] Tom was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to culture in the 2025 King's birthday honours.[4] The CBE was recognition of his role as Chair of Manchester International and Factory International.
Bloxham was born in Hampshire and went to Tiffin School[5] leaving in 1983 to go to Manchester to study Politics & Modern History at the Victoria University of Manchester where he received a 2:2 degree. Before university he sold fire extinguishers to businesses and he increased sales by setting his briefcase on fire and then extinguishing it. At University he started a poster business selling posters at student unions across the north of England. After university he opened a music and film poster shop in Afflecks Palace.[6]
Urban Splash
Bloxham began subletting portions of his unit at Afflecks Palace and this began his career in property. Bloxham co-founded Urban Splash with architect Jonathan Falkingham and initially converted redundant properties, mainly formerly industrial buildings, in north west England into city centre residential loft apartments.[7]
Headquartered in Castlefield, Manchester,[8] with regional bases in Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield, Cambridgeshire and Plymouth, the company has created more than 6,000 new homes and jobs and over two million sq ft of commercial space. The company has won over 490 awards for architecture and regeneration, including 46 RIBA awards.[9] In 2024 the Urban Splash Park Hill building in Sheffield was nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize;[10] it was the second time the building had made the Stirling Prize list having been shortlisted in 2013.[11]
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and in 1999, he was given an MBE.[7]
In September 2012 the company reported pre-tax losses of £9.3 million and debts of £234.4 million for the previous year.[12]
In the aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire a number of Urban Splash developments were found to have been constructed using flammable cladding and to not comply with the required Building regulations in the United Kingdom.[13][14]