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Smith was born in the [[Tyneside]] industrial town of [[Wallsend]], east of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], the son of a coal miner. He left school early and was apprenticed as a painter in a local shipyard. As a young adult, he increasingly made a name for himself as a political agitator. He was a [[Trotskyist]] and member of the [[Independent Labour Party]], and campaigned against British participation in the [[Second World War]] (he was exempted from service through deafness); at the same time, he ran his own painting and decorating company.
Smith was born in the [[Tyneside]] industrial town of [[Wallsend]], east of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], the son of a coal miner. He left school early and was apprenticed as a painter in a local shipyard. As a young adult, he increasingly made a name for himself as a political agitator. He was a [[Trotskyist]] and member of the [[Independent Labour Party]], and campaigned against British participation in the [[Second World War]] (he was exempted from service through deafness); at the same time, he ran his own painting and decorating company.
Smith was expelled from the ILP in 1945 and subsequently joined the [[Labour Party]], and became a councillor for the working class Walker ward of Newcastle in 1950. When Labour gained control of Newcastle in 1958 he became deputy leader, and, in 1960, leader of the council. Between then and his resignation from the council in 1965, he brought about massive changes to the structure of the city and the organisation of its council, for which he has been described as 'the first American-style city boss in Britain'. In association with his protege, the planner Wilfred Burns, a major plan was drawn up and partially implemented to rebuild the Victorian centre of Newcastle as a twentieth century 'regional capital'; in the media it was likened to a 'new [[Brasilia]]'.
Smith was expelled from the ILP in 1945 and subsequently joined the [[Labour Party]], and became a councillor for the working class Walker ward of Newcastle in 1950. When Labour gained control of Newcastle in 1958 he became deputy leader, and, in 1960, leader of the council. Between then and his resignation from the council in 1965, he brought about massive changes to the structure of the city and the organisation of its council, for which he has been described as 'the first American-style city boss in Britain'. In association with his protege, the planner Wilfred Burns, a major plan was drawn up and partially implemented to rebuild the Victorian centre of Newcastle as a twentieth century 'regional capital'; in the media it was likened to a 'new [[Brasilia]]'. He encouraged the use of arts and education as instruments of urban and economic renewal, and was instrumental in the foundation of the city's polytechnic, now Northumbria University. He also streamlined the organisation of the council, creating a cabinet government and appointing senior officers as dynamic as himself.
In 1965 Smith resigned from the council and was appointed chairman of the newly-formed Northern Economic Planning Council; its aim was to stimulate the northern economy through integrated planning but Smith also used his position to urge the creation of a Northern Assembly and the rationalisation of local government. In the early 1960s he was a member of the Royal Commission which produced the influential Buchanan Report 'Traffic in Towns', and in the late 1960s he sat on the Redcliffe Maud Commission, which drew up a plan for the reform of English local government.
However, from the early 1960s Smith had also run a string of public relations companies, which benefitted from providing PR and lobbying for building and development companies, notably that of [[John Poulson]]. Poulson built up a