He told the Cambridge Independent he wants the design to "go global" to help homeless people.

"Some people think it's absolute genius, some people are actually horrified. 'Oh you can't put homeless people in rubbish bins', they say. My argument is I'm not putting homeless people in there, they are choosing it," he said.

The businessman said he first had the idea of using wheelie bins as a shelter when he built a single-person car prototype - also made from a bin.

"It was just one of those bright spark ideas - I thought this might work. So I put one together and got in it and thought yeah this does work."

He's laid down in one of his sleeping pods "for some tens of minutes" but thinks it would be nicer if they were slightly bigger.