ASBESTOS campaigners have welcomed a landmark judgement preventing a bid by insurance companies to stop paying out compensation.

The High Court decision means insurers will continue to be liable for claims from some of the 3,000 people who die each year through asbestos exposure.

The ruling was supported by the members of Save Spodden Valley, the group protesting against plans to build 600 homes on the former Turner’s asbestos factory site.

Spokesman Jason Addy said: "The judgement is welcome news for some mesothelioma victims and their families. It was a common sense judgement that has delivered some justice. The concern is that the insurers will appeal and this could cause years of further delay, expense and uncertainty to vulnerable people dying of a cancer caused by simply going to work."

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen said: "This is great news for the poor people who have campaigned hard for this decision. I will continue to put pressure on Government ministers to ensure people get properly compensated."

The hearing hinged on when an insurance firm was liable – at the time of exposure or when a worker becomes ill.

If the court had ruled in favour of the firms it would have made it harder to get a payout as many of the employers involved are no longer in business.

Tony Whitston, the chairman of the asbestos victims’ support group forum, added: "This welcome judgement averts the catastrophic effect this case might have had on asbestos victims as ‘collateral damage’ in an insurers’ war.  Insurers should be required to set up a fund of last resort to pay asbestos victims, as they do for motor traffic victims, then asbestos victims would not be affected by a case like this."