Heathrow should be bought by the Government, bulldozed, and turned into a new London borough for 250,000 people, Boris Johnson will argue today.

As the debate over airport expansion intensifies this week, the Mayor of London will outline plans to convert the UK's biggest airport into a residential area to make way for a four-runway hub to the east of London.

Mr Johnson's proposals are part of a submission to the Airports Commission, a body set up by the Government to draw up options for increased aviation capacity.

He will argue transport links to the Heathrow area make it an ideal location to develop thousands of new homes and businesses among west London's affuelent areas.

Campaigners and politicians in Richmond, Merton and Wandsworth have fiercely opposed plans to add a third runway at Heathrow because of concerns over air and noise pollution.

Mr Johnson will publish three possible alternatives: a four-runway hub on reclaimed land on the Isle of Grain in Kent, the so-called 'Boris Island' airport in the Thames Estuary, or expanding Stansted in Essex to four runways.

But Heathrow has warned closing the airport could lead to over 100,000 redundancies and will publish more detailed plans for a third runway expansion later this week.

In a report entitled Best Placed for Britain, Heathrow estimated expansion could be completed by 2025 - nine years quicker than it would take to build the Thames Estuary.

But the report said the airport may need a subsidy from the taxpayer to expand, but it would cost a lot less than building a new hub airport.

The Airports Commission will announce a shortlist of new runway options by the end of the year, with detailed studies to be carried out in 2014.

It will set out its final recommendations after the general election in 2015.

What do you think? Should we get rid of Heathrow and build a bigger airport hub elsewhere?