If all goes to plan, London Paramount will open its doors in 2021 but Steven Norris will be last in the queue for its big attractions.

“Not at my age,” said the Liverpudlian, 70, who was twice a London mayor candidate and a transport minister under John Major. “I’m happy just watching my grandchildren. There are people who love rides and people who think ‘great, you go and use them’ and I’m one of the latter.”

Mr Norris, chairman of London Resort Company Holdings, the developer of the park, reignited a long-held tie with north Kent when he joined the team.

In 1994, he was on the first Eurostar train with the Queen, Princess Margaret, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, which he said “was a bit like having another Queen”.

Back then, former quarry land between Dartford and Gravesend had been earmarked as the ideal place for a new town called Ebbsfleet. Save for a few hundred houses, not much is different today.

“I haven’t seen it change enough,” said Mr Norris. “I was involved in the discussions to put a station at Stratford, Ebbsfleet and Ashford and each was to be the catalyst to developing real jobs at activity around the stations.

“It’s fair to say that while Ashford was a mildly-qualified success and Stratford has a life of its own around the Olympic area, Ebbsfleet frankly had not developed in the way aniticipated in the 1990s.”

The Paramount resort, which aims to create 27,000 jobs, would help change all that, according to Mr Norris. It has the rights to build rides based on films and shows by Paramount, the BBC and Aardman Animations. Funded by Kuwaiti backers KEH, a planning application is expected to be submitted to the Secretary of State this summer.

He said: “This is one of the projects that will make Ebbsfleet. If you have good connections, in this case to London and the continent through HS1, then you ought to be able to optimise those.

“You don’t see much of it here yet but by the time you have 15,000 homes and London Paramount, you will begin to see something which is significant.

“It is a big catalyst for converting this area of north Kent from something which is forgotten into an area with enormous potential.”

What did you think when you joined London Paramount?

“When I first saw it I thought ‘wow this is going to be a big job’. We have got things in the way like the HS1 route and the biggest pylon in the UK at Swanscombe – doing anything with that pylon is going to cost a shed-load of money – but subject to that, this is a great site which won’t impose on anyone but is close enough to London and a station like Ebbsfleet. There are millions of people within an hour’s ride of the site but it won’t impose itself on them.”

What is it like dealing with Middle Eastern backers like KEH?

“If you are dealing in the Gulf, it does help to have been a former minister of the Crown. When I first looked at this project, I needed reassurance that this great idea was going to be adequately funded from concept to several billion pound out-turn. I formally came on board when Kuwaiti businessman Dr Al-Humaidi and KEH joined. When I talked to him and saw what he was able to deliver on the project, then I knew this wasn’t just going to be a great idea.”

What is public attitude towards London Paramount?

“I really mean this: there are far less obvious objections than you would normally find. If it’s an urban planning scheme, there is no project which doesn’t incur some wrath from some quarter. In this case, yes there are issues around the impact on traffic, but otherwise it has been astonishingly well received. What’s not to like? It’s going to bring 27,000 jobs and that’s pretty significant in an area that has not been known for great job creation in a very long time.”

Why didn’t Ebbsfleet garden city happen 20 years ago?

“Partly it was because a lot of the land which needed to be reclaimed was expensive to build on compared with the average brownfield site close to London. After Bluewater, I think people were struggling to see what might be the next big project. It was always sad we didn’t continue to extend Crossrail to Ebbsfleet because that itself would have been a big boost. That will happen eventually.”

What do you enjoy about your job?

“I love bringing projects forward. I enjoy chairing the boards of companies. You have a strategic objective you want to deliver, whether it’s for shareholders or owners and you get a team you can motivate and you deliver an outcome. I find that incredibly satisfying.”

CV

Born: 24/5/1945

Grew up: Liverpool

Live: Wandsworth

First job:Sold electronic mechanical accounting equipment for a firm called Burroughs.

First salary: “I got £80 a month but with the commission I was the richest graduate of Oxford that year by a country mile.”

Salary now:Undisclosed.

Favourite film: Casablanca.

Music: New World Symphony by Dvorak

Pets: Cat called Titus.

Car: “I’ve had them all. Rolls Royce’s, Bentley’s, Aston Martins but now I drive a very boring Mercedes. I’m a bit of a car nut. I’ve only got four or five at the moment.”

Charity: Vice president of Royal National Institute for the Deaf. “I’m a bit mutton and have been since the age of nine.”

Typical day

Steven Norris leaves the house at about 7.15am and does not usually return until 9.15pm at the earliest. “If I came before I think I’d frighten my wife. She would be astonished.”

No two days are the same, spending time at meetings with people at the various companies he works for.

After our interview at Ebbsfleet at about 5pm he heads off to the office to do some more work and says he will do more when he gets home. He is often in the office on a Saturday.

On the coming Sunday he will jump on a plane to the US for a meeting, then he will go on holiday to the south of France, where he will only check his email three times a day.

What does he like to do in his downtime? “I don’t recognise the question,” he said, not entirely joking.

“I don’t have downtime, I don’t want it. I don’t see a distinction between working and not working. I’m always working and I’m not working. if you enjoy what you do, it’s never really work.”

That said, he is a lifelong Evertonian and tries to get to matches when he can.