David Blunkett, the home secretary, has broadened his campaign for extra cash to tackle poverty by complaining that Gordon Brown's Treasury team - who hold the purse strings - have none of his own experience of growing up on an poor estate.

"Very few, if any, Treasury officials know anything about areas of disadvantage. Certainly they have never lived on estates like the one on which I was brought up. That is a fact, not a sideswipe at the Treasury, we are talking about people who are very deprived," the Sheffield MP and former council leader said.

Speaking this week at a Whitehall seminar to find better ways of building up active communities, Mr Blunkett recalled admiring Margaret Thatcher for wanting to empower individuals, even though she did not grasp that some people are so poor that they need government help to attain self-reliance.

Urging local and central government to start transferring assets - like parks and community centres - to local communities to help build "social capital", he also reaffirmed the case for the so-called child trust fund which is intended to give "baby bond" cash to newborns.

"We have to hold our nerve for the long-term agenda and for the child trust fund and to persuade the Treasury to do the same," he told the seminar organised by Downing Street's progress chaser, the performance and innovation unit (PIU).

While he repeatedly praised the chancellor - with whom he is openly battling ahead of the April 17 Budget and mid summer spending review - Mr Blunkett also drew attention to the relative lack of direct experience of poverty among senior Whitehall officials.

Some of his audience, who did grow up in difficult circumstances, were said to have been irritated by the remarks, though Mr Blunkett has overcome the additional burden of being born blind.

The only son of elderly parents, he was raised by his widowed mother after his father died in an industrial accident when he was close to retirement.

The home secretary is currently fighting a noisy battle with Mr Brown, the son of a Presbyterian minister, for the funds he needs to reform prisons, the asylum and justice systems - against politically-heavier pressure from the health and education budgets.

Estelle Morris this week appealed for cash to secure still "fragile" improvements to the school system. Mr Brown is not keen on public bids for public service improvements and the health secretary, Alan Milburn, this year's likely "winner", has refrained from joining in.

The stakes have been raised by the declining popularity of Tony Blair's government - partly driven by fear of street crime - and restlessness among Labour MPs.

Government whips are hoping that tempers will cool somewhat during the two-week Easter break which started yesterday.

They also look to Mr Brown's budget to use his formidable political skills to raise morale. Yesterday, the former culture secretary, Chris Smith, coupled praise for Labour's achievements so far with a warning that change takes time to work through the public services.

Ministers should embrace the need for "debate and discussion" about reform, said Mr Smith, who insisted that most Labour MPs remain loyal. "Stalking horses should stay in their stables," he concluded.

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