Tens of thousands of bright children in the poorest parts of England and Wales are being let down by schools that fail to nurture their talent, a leading government adviser has warned Tony Blair.

Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said those who opposed spending more time and money on gifted and talented children held an 'anti-elitist ideology' that would hold back the economy.

'We are wasting our talent,' said Taylor, who this week will present a report to the government recommending a 20-fold increase in spending on very able children, to £100m. 'Many gifted children from socially disadvantaged areas are not realising their potential, not becoming role models in their local communities and not contributing as much to the economy as they could.'

In his report Taylor will recommend that the names of the 30,000 children aged 11 who have been identified as 'gifted and talented' by their standard attainment tests (Sats) should be sent to top universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, arguing that pupils can then be targeted earlier to maximise their chance of getting a place. He will also call for the children to get places at summer schools, extra classes at weekends, online training, and the chance to be taught in 'sets' that separate children by ability.

Children who were exceptionally gifted had a 'special educational need', said Taylor, and deserved extra support like those with learning and physical disabilities. His recommendations will be sent to Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, who is already looking at giving schools credits to spend on their most able pupils.

Taylor said critics of the plans were egalitarians, who believed in a 'one size fits all' approach, and those who feared selection through the back door. 'Every child is different,' he said. 'There should be equal opportunities for all, not a lowest common denominator approach.'

He said he supported comprehensive education and that his recommendations would not mean a return to selection because the 'talent search' would happen after children had received their places in secondary schools.

'The nurturing of our very able children is not only in this country's economic self-interest but also a matter of social justice - to ensure that every child, whatever their social background, achieves the potential of which they are capable,' he writes in the report. 'It is not about elitism.'

Taylor has included new research from Professor David Jesson of York University that showed only 28 per cent of pupils identified as gifted and talented in 1999 went on to achieve their expected three 'A' grades at A-level.

However, Jesson pointed out that many teenagers not highlighted as very able did achieve top grades, and warned that pupils not picked out at primary school should not be neglected. 'That is why it is important that [identifying pupils as talented] is not a one-off exercise,' he said. 'We need to watch to see which pupils develop later on.'

His research also showed that the higher the number of gifted and talented children in the same school year, the better grades each pupil achieved. However, where grammar schools and comprehensives had equal numbers of gifted and talented children, the pupils at the latter did better in exams.

Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the needs of talented children could be met through the state system. Saturday classes and summer courses already existed, he said, and had not attracted the take-up or enthusiasm hoped.

And it was not only the most gifted who were not achieving their potential, he warned: 'There is a huge problem of under-achievement among boys in their teenage years.'