Darling's scrap car scheme

LONDON // Alastair Darling, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, has announced plans for a car-scrapping scheme which he hopes will kick start declining demand for new cars in Britain. Following the introduction of similar so-called "cash for clunkers" schemes in other European countries, the British programme will give consumers up to a £2,000 (Dh10,625) discount on a new car when they send their old vehicle, which must have been bought more than 10 years previously, to the scrap yard. When Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, introduced a comparable scheme in Germany, new car sales increased by more than 40 per cent.