Sir Keir Starmer is to announce a “Pride in Place” programme with funding for over 330 disadvantaged communities as part of a fightback against Reform UK.

The money will come alongside new powers for local groups to seize boarded-up shops, save derelict pubs and block gambling and vape stores on high streets, the government said.

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The plan aims to address the sense of isolation in deprived communities, which Labour insiders believe is feeding the rise of Reform UK.

A Labour source described the programme as “absolutely essential” and “transformative”.

They told Sky News: “Reform is trying to divide communities, Labour wants to empower them, and we are giving them the tools and resources to turn them around.”

The full list of places that will receive the cash boost, and how much they will get, will be confirmed by the prime minister on Thursday.

The money is part of the communities funding plan announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her June spending review, which promised new investment for 350 deprived areas across the UK “to improve parks, youth facilities, swimming pools and libraries”.

The government said at the time these areas included the 75 places previously named in the Plan for Neighbourhoods, each of which will get £20m of funding over the next 10 years.

The Spending Review named another 20 “pilot neighbourhoods” in England to receive the same amount of funding, mainly in the north or the Midlands, as well as five other pilots across the rest of the UK.

Sir Keir is expected to announce the rest on Thursday.

Speaking ahead of that announcement, the new housing secretary, Steve Reed, said the money will allow local people to “decide how best to restore pride in their neighbourhoods, not us in Westminster”.

He added: “That’s what real patriotism looks like: building up our communities and choosing renewal over division.”

How will the funding work?

The funding will be allocated to neighbourhood boards made up of community leaders and stakeholders, who will work closely with local councils, it is understood.

They will be granted Community Right to Buy and Compulsory Purchase Powers, allowing them to buy assets like grassroots football clubs, seize derelict buildings and save local pubs, the government said.

Councils will also be given powers to block betting shops, vape stores and fake barbers.

The programme draws similarities with Tony Blair’s New Deal for Communities (NDC), a 10-year regeneration drive that targeted 39 of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England from 2001.

An independent evaluation found NDC partnerships delivered improvements across several indicators, including crime, education and health. The biggest change was how people felt about their neighbourhoods as places to live.

Each area had around £50m of investment under the former Labour prime minister’s programme, but these were geographically bigger than the ones the government is now targeting, it is understood.

The “Pride in Place” Programme has been informed by the work of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (ICON), launched in September last year to review the state of England’s neighbourhoods.

ICON identified 613 “mission critical” neighbourhoods – those they said needed the most urgent attention to make progress on Sir Keir’s “missions” for government.

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The bulk of these were in post-industrial areas in northern England, though high need was also identified in the West Midlands and coastal towns such as Blackpool and Clacton – the latter being the seat of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Many of the sites to be announced are expected to contain a mission-critical neighbourhood within them.

Baroness Hilary Armstrong, a former Labour health minister and chair of ICON, said: “If residents start to see positive, tangible changes in their neighbourhoods, this should start to restore the public’s faith in the power of government to do good.”

It comes at a critical time for Sir Keir, who has faced questions over whether he can survive after spending most of his first year in office languishing behind Reform UK in the polls.

Labour MPs have been lobbying for the funding for some time, expressing concern that Number 10’s mission to grow the economy with big infrastructure investments will not directly benefit people in areas that look and feel “left behind”.

Luke Akehurst, the Labour MP for North Durham, told Sky News: “This is what Labour governments are all about – properly funding the areas of the county that most need help.”

Donald Trump is right that European countries should stop buying Russian oil and gas, one of the EU’s top officials has told Sky News.

Speaking on The World with Yalda Hakim, European Commission vice president Kaja Kallas said it was of “great regret” that this was still happening among some of the bloc’s member states.

The commission has proposed legislation to phase out Russian imports of its oil and gas by 1 January 2028, as Brussels tries to cut its decades-old energy relations with Moscow following Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Most European countries stopped importing Russian crude oil in 2022 and Russian fuel in 2023, but crude imports by Hungary and Slovakia have continued.

Ms Kallas, who is the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said of Mr Trump‘s energy call: “Of course he has a point. I mean, we have been saying this for quite some time, that the dependency on Russian oil and gas is actually also fuelling the war.

“But you have to see that we have done a lot to diminish that, really, to get rid of Russian oil and gas. And there are a few countries who are still buying oil and also there America has leverage because they are also good friends of America.

“Neighbours around those countries have also proposed alternatives, so we can do this.”

Ms Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, does not think NATO and EU members Hungary or Slovakia should be sanctioned, but instead they should “really build on the alternatives that neighbours are providing them to get rid of the Russian oil and gas like President Trump has asked”.

She added that “the neighbouring countries are providing or offering different alternative routes. The thing is that this oil and gas is just cheaper…”

She continued: “It is of great regret that we haven’t been able to put all these member states in the same position… getting rid of the Russian oil and gas.”

On Wednesday, Slovakia pushed back on pressure it is facing to cut back its purchases of Russian energy, saying it was ready to discuss the issue, but singled out some European states for increasing their gas purchases from Moscow.

Slovakian foreign minister Juraj Blanar said there was hypocrisy in criticising his country when liquefied natural gas purchases from Russia to Western Europe had increased by 30% over the last year.

“France, Spain, and the Netherlands… so can you see the picture is a little bit more colourful than black and white,” he said.

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Donald Trump has said the US was prepared to impose energy sanctions against Russia – but only if all NATO countries stop buying Russian oil and implement similar measures.

“I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia,” the US president said on his Truth Social platform earlier this month.

And at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, he said: “In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs, which would stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.”

But for the measures to be effective, he said, “European nations, all of you gathered here, would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures.”

Energy revenues remain the Kremlin’s single most important source of cash to finance the war effort, making oil and gas exports a central target of Western sanctions.

But officials and analysts warn that aggressive curbs on Russian crude also risk driving up global oil prices, a prospect that could strain Western economies and weaken public support for the measures.

Since 2023, NATO member Turkey has been the third-largest buyer of Russian oil, after China and India, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

An airport in Denmark has been forced to close after drones were spotted nearby, local police have said.

Incoming and departing flights from Aalborg Airport were halted following the incident.

In a post on X, Nordjyllands Police said: “Drones have been observed near Aalborg Airport and the airspace is closed. The police are present and investigating further.”

A spokesperson for the airport did not say how many drones were seen in its airspace.

Four flights were affected, including two SAS planes, one Norwegian and one KLM flight, they added.

Aalborg is located in the north of the country, in the Jutland region, and is Denmark’s fourth-largest city by population.

The incident comes after Copenhagen Airport halted operations earlier this week following reports of drones in the air.

Denmark‘s prime minister later said she “cannot deny” that drones seen over the airport were flown by Russia.

Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours after a drone was seen there.

It also comes after disruption at Heathrow Airport last week following a cyber attack that also hit other major airports in Europe.

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