PEOPLE dying as a result of exposure to asbestos will receive compensation, the Government is expected to announce today.

Ministers will bow to pressure to do more for the forgotten sufferers of asbestos exposure by setting up a fund “of last resort” for people whose employers cannot be traced.

A £70m package will also include a research centre into asbestos- linked diseases and more money for victims of the deadly cancer mesothelioma, unions have been told.

However, Justice Secretary Jack Straw will face a backlash when he confirms that future sufferers from pleural plaques – a condition that can trigger mesothelioma and lung cancer – will not get compensation.

Only the existing 6,500 sufferers will receive no fault payouts – and only of up to £5,000.

They will be funded by the taxpayer, rather than insurance companies.

Trade unions and many Labour backbenchers are furious, because compensation will still be available in Scotland.

Today, Mr Straw will argue that the ringfenced fund, the Employers Liability Insurance Bureau, will give compensation to sufferers – but only if someone with pleural plaques develops an asbestos-related disease. More than 2,000 people – mostly men – died from mesothelioma across the region between 1980 and 2005, according to official figures.

Among the blackspots, taking into account size of population, were South Tyneside (240 deaths), Hartlepool (97), Sunderland (288). Stockton (154) and Redcar and Cleveland (108).