Facebook to double UK office capacity to 6,000

FACEBOOK will double its UK office capacity by investing in two new buildings in King’s Cross, significantly bulking up the tech giant’s London presence.

The social network company said the new buildings will boost its capacity to 6,000 staff in the UK, although it would not confirm how many new jobs will follow. The new offices have yet to be built but Facebook said the space will be ready by 2021.

The Silicon Valley giant has already been scaling up its UK presence with a new London site that it said would create 800 new jobs in December last year. By the end of 2018, Facebook will have 2,300 staff in the UK.

Some of its new business ventures have been developed in the UK, including Workplace, its human resources tool, while it also has a London-based virtual reality team working on its Oculus headset.

The new offices will include 600,000 sq ft of space in King’s Cross, joining search giant Google, which has received permission for 1m sq ft of office space for its new £1bn UK headquarters. Jeremy Wright, the digital minister, said the expansion planned by Facebook was “another vote of confidence in our economy” and would help the UK to secure “high-paying, highskilled jobs of the future”.

Earlier this summer, the firm was revealed to have acquired artificial intelligence start-up Bloomsbury for around $30m (£22m).

Steve Hatch, Facebook’s managing director for Northern Europe, said: “Today’s news reflects our commitment to the UK and our desire to grow our business.”