"I'm just a little builder," said the multi-millionaire tycoon who's spearheaded the past decade's city living boom. "I just wander round in my own little world really, it's only because of things happening recently that I've got this increased exposure and people have put me on a bit of a pedestal."

Though not impossible, such meekness is difficult to swallow sitting opposite one of Britain's biggest property developers in the rather plush offices of his Leeds headquarters.

From the top of this Whitehall Waterfront tower he enjoys panoramic views of Leeds, from the suburban city limits right through to the city centre where he can admire his property empire.

In the distance is his first outpost, a relatively modest (but at the time of construction, pioneering) apartment block on the banks of the River Aire; then the redeveloped former Royal Mail building, West Point; and what is currently Leeds's tallest building, Bridgewater Place.

Uncomfortably he can also get a clear view of the void where the first signs of Lumiere should now be emerging on the skyline.

Plans to build the £155m twin glass towers were put on ice six weeks ago, leaving a question mark not just over this scheme but over the whole future of the city living boom.

But Linfoot himself insists his decision to halt work at a key point after laying the £12m foundations certainly had nothing to do with the flats market taking a dive.

He claims it was all too do with the wavering economy. Though all the funding streams remain in place the fear was that changing events could see one of them suddenly dry up.

He said: "What was happening in the financial world worried me and I didn't want to put ourselves in a position where we get things under way and things change.

"I'm very nervous about what's happening, so I decided to adopt the sensible approach. I mean, can you imagine if we started building Lumiere and one off the banks gets taken over or something and we lose a funding line?

"It's like a lottery at the moment and in 32 years I've never seen the market change as quickly as it has in recent months. I'm partly going on a gut feeling.

"We were very reluctant to bring work to a halt, but all we're doing is making sure everything goes ahead under the right circumstances - does Leeds wants a half finished building? There was a slim chance of that happening, but why even risk putting all those buyers in that position?

"We're hoping to get things started again next year, but you can put an exact timeline on it because things are changing so quickly at the moment, virtually day by day, and nobody knows how to read it."

But couldn't that mean shelving the project almost indefinitely, particularly if Britain slides into recession?

"I think there is a possibility of going into recession," he said. "I don't know for sure course, it's crystal ball stuff, but we're just taking this measure until the banks start lending again.

"But they are going to have to start lending again. That's what they do, it's how they make their money. I think it will be after Christmas before we get a clear picture of where the economy lies, it's then that people start spending and borrowing again."

Putting the project on the back burner prompted many observers to wonder whether Lumiere had outstretched itself. The design, to create a 560ft architectural icon and the tallest residential building in Western Europe, was undeniably ambitious.

But Linfoot points out that of the 832 apartments around 600 have already been snapped up plus plans are in the pipeline to make a large block purchase of serviced apartments. In other words the lion's share had already seen contracts and deposits exchange long before the first foundations were laid.

It seems the scheme has been the victim of timing. Work began on the ground just before the credit crunch started to bite, but Linfoot accepts it couldn't have started any sooner and planning chiefs at Leeds City Council couldn't have been more speedy or co-operative.

Linfoot does, however, target cynics leading an anti-city living movement growing in Leeds - which he insists isn't based on fact.

"There are all kinds of statistics bounded around," he said. "Someone stood up in the House of Commons and claimed that something like 30 per cent of flats in Leeds are unoccupied, which is nonsense, it's nowhere near.

"Leeds City Council's council tax records show that just over 12 per cent are unoccupied and while some people have said that that doesn't necessarily mean people are living there all the time, what about people who do live there all the time and dodge council tax?

"And there's all this worry about the market becoming saturated when between now and 2012 the number of city centre apartments is going to grow from 6,000 to 8,000 - well, that's nothing compared to Manchester they have something like 33,000.

"There has been problems and part of the problem is that Leeds is like a bowl with the true city centre apartments in the middle and other developments on the rim which aren't really city living apartments.

"What you've seen in recent years is people coming in and buying these properties at high prices without even viewing them sometimes, then they haven't ended up with what they they thought they were getting and that has understandably fuelled cynicism. But despite that I don't think the city living bubble has burst, far from it."

Despite his optimism Linfoot insists the controversy and uncertainty has affected him personally.

"Oh, you loose lots of sleep over stuff like this, naturally," he said. "And I'm conscious of the fact it's not just another apartment block it's an icon - another Harvey Nichols, so, believe me, there's plenty of pressure.

"I think the biggest problem we face though is not supporting Leeds. I think the city has taken a knock in recent times and that's not fair, this is a great place and we need to stop believing a lot of the negativity about Leeds.

"The media only tend to be interested in bad headlines, that's the truth, but it's now that we need to really get behind Leeds, not for Lumiere or for me, for the city as whole.

"I know a lot of attention has been on me in recent months but I don't care that much, I'm a big boy and I can look after myself, I just wouldn't ever want to leave Leeds in a bad light.

"I want people to judge me on what I do and I don't have a track record of failure. I know what I'm doing, I'm a fighter - I might not be the smartest guy in the world but I am very streetwise."