Business & Money | Tuesday 5 December, 2017 12:29 am |

Facebook will create 800 new jobs in London over the next year, increasing its UK workforce by more than 50%, as it opens a new office in the capital on Monday.

 

The US tech giant has had offices in the UK for 10 years, but its expansion marks a vote of confidence in the UK amid the uncertainty of Brexit.

 

By the end of next year, Facebook said it would employ more than 2,300 people in the UK and more than half of those at the London site would focus on engineering, making it the company’s biggest engineering hub outside the US.

 

The Frank Gehry-designed offices in Rathbone Place, just off Oxford Street, will also house developer, marketing and sales teams.

 

It will also be home to LDN_LAB, a scheme under which tech startups will be invited to take part in three-month programmes designed to help accelerate their development. Facebook will be looking for an initial five to six startups to join the first programme with applications starting on Monday. The company’s engineering, product and other experts will give their time to support a planned 20 startups next year.