A charity is planning to use shipping containers to house homeless young people in east London to allow them to live independently as they save for their own home.

Forest YMCA has identified sites in Leyton and Waltham Forest for the containers and has put in a planning application to Waltham Forest Council.

It plans to rent out the temporary homes, which cost up to £20,000 each, at a rate of 30 per cent of the minimum wage – about £75 a week.

The mYPad homes, as the charity calls them, will have a bed, small kitchen, toilet and shower and television.