Culture Minister Margaret Hodge's intervention increases pressure on the Council to fund elite ensembles such as the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

She spoke out after Jeff Ennis, MP for Barnsley East and Mexborough, claimed it was a "national scandal" the band gets no money while orchestras have received millions in recent years.

He has discovered that in the past three years the Royal Philharmonic, Hallé and City of Birmingham Orchestras have been given £23m between them from the Arts Council, while award-winning brass groups such as Grimethorpe and Black Dyke Mills received nothing.

Instead, Yorkshire brass bands have had to seek funding from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward or local businesses.

Mrs Hodge said local and regional authorities should do more to ensure bands were kept alive, but told MPs: "I am convinced that the Arts Council could do more."

She stressed, however, that decisions were down to the Council itself.

Mr Ennis said at the moment elite brass bands are effectively disqualified for Arts Council support until 2011 because of its three-year funding deal with the Government.

He has been campaigning for extra funding for brass bands, and has been more outspoken since discovering opera companies received £1,100 from the Arts Council for every £1 given to a band.

Speaking in a debate on the issue in the House of Commons, he called for a better deal for renowned brass bands such as Grimethorpe.

"I pay tribute to the corporate social responsibility that national and international organisations have shown to my community, but I should not have to be sending begging letters to big companies in Yorkshire for the best brass band in the world," he said.

"The Arts Council has one third of a billion pounds a year to give out to musical companies and what have you, but Grimethorpe has not been able to tap into a penny of it."