AN MP has called on the Government to compensate flood-hit families even if they were not insured.

The Government last week told Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh that it was giving farmers across North Yorkshire and elsewhere another chance to get EU subsidies if their crops had been washed out.

On Tuesday, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Ashok Kumar urged Agriculture Minister Nick Brown to consider direct aid to ordinary residents whose homes had been devastated.

Dr Kumar told how residents of Skinningrove and Carlin How had seen possessions destroyed. Some people had been unable to get insurance after floods in July.

"I appeal to the Government to help - to extend the support you have offered to farmers to these people," Dr Kumar said.