Ahead of his appearance before the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee which is presently conducting an inquiry on air quality, London Mayor Boris Johnson came up with a new proposal to deal with air pollution --- to pay motorists to scrap diesel cars.

The new proposal was put forth by Johnson in written evidence, prior to his appearance before the Committee.

According to the proposal, owners of diesel vehicles could be handed out an amount of £1,000 under a national scrappage scheme, in an effort to persuade them to scrap their diesel cars.

The idea expounded by Johnson essentially builds on the 2009-introduced national scrappage scheme under which £1,000 were offered to owners of vehicles more than 10 years old, to persuade them to purchase new cars. That scheme - which was chiefly aimed at giving a boost to car sales during recession - was discontinued in March 2010.

With regard to the proposal to pay motorists to scrap diesel cars, Johnson said in the written submission: "A national scrappage scheme for diesel and other polluting vehicles is now needed as a priority in order to compensate people who have bought polluting diesel vehicles in good faith, as well as to drive forward air quality improvements."