First Minister Alex Salmond is looking to open up more formal channels of communication with Westminster and high on his agenda are talks about benefit money lost to Scotland when free personal care for the elderly was introduced.

Mr Salmond, who confirmed neither Prime Minister Tony Blair nor his successor, Gordon Brown, had been in touch since the election, said the emergence of administrations in different parts of the UK, ruled by different parties, brought the need for channels of communication to be put on a more formal basis.

The First Minister is proposing an inquiry into the way free personal care for the elderly is working, with both the architect of the original plans, Sir Stewart Sutherland, and Henry McLeish, first minister at that time, likely to be invited to participate.

A key aspect of the review will be the £23m-a-year attendance allowances, a UK benefit given to pay for personal care for the elderly, which Westminster withdrew after Holyrood backed the free care policy. Mr Salmond is also considering the release of ministerial correspondence with the UK government on the issue, in order to force it up the agenda for any future talks with Westminster.

Asked during his briefing at Bute House at the weekend whether he was surprised about the lack of contact from London, Mr Salmond said: "The form, I suppose, would be that the Prime Minister should have been in touch. That's a matter for him to explain." Mr Salmond said the emergence of administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, ruled by different parties, brought the need for a formal channel of communication.

He said: "I don't think you could possibly argue that when you have administrations across the country of different political complexion, you have to have a proper process by which areas of joint interest can be progressed, areas of difference reconciled.

"Otherwise, what are the various governments meant to do? Are we meant to get a Labour MSP to raise a question at First Minister's Questions, or am I meant to get an SNP MP raise a question at Prime Minister's Questions? What would be important is to have the Scottish government, the Northern Ireland government, and the Welsh government agree that they want that procedure."

Mr Salmond also hinted that the proposed Edinburgh tram system and airport rail link could be far more expensive than expected. The SNP's manifesto pledged to redirect the £1.1bn of spending planned for these projects, primarily to rail improvements, across the rest of the country.

Mr Salmond said: "We are gathering together all the relevant information and will be making a presentation to parliament. There is a significant amount of information which will be new to the parliament in terms of how much money would be spent. It would not be the first construction project in the world to run over budget."

Mr Salmond also called on Alistair Darling, Trade and Industry Secretary, to try to resurrect plans for a carbon capture power station project at Peterhead.

His concern about the loss of the project came as Scottish Coal said it would like both the Scottish Executive and the Westminster government to back plans to start deep mining again now that new clean coal technology meant big reserves could be exploited.