F&I Management & Training

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has urged the Government to bring back the car scrappage scheme – but this time for diesel vehicles.

Giving evidence to the Govt’s Environmental Audit Committee last week, he said drivers of older and more polluting diesel vehicles should be offered £1000-£2000 cash as an incentive to swap them for new models – with petrol engines.

This, he said, would help London and other British cities meet European clean air targets. “This has been a massive failure of public policy,” Mr Johnson said. “Millions of people were told they were doing the right thing, the clean thing, the environmentally friendly thing, by buying a diesel. They now feel very hacked off now they're told they are more polluting."

Mr Johnson, who is now also Tory Parliamentary candidate for Uxbridge, has as Mayor already announced plans to charge drivers of diesels an extra £10 from 2020 to use the London Congestion Zone.

The UK vehicle scrappage scheme, which offered owners of cars at least 10 years old £1000 minimum trade-in against a new model, was introduced in 2009 and ended in March 2010.

DATED: 19.09.2014

FEED: ARN