Facebook says it will hire an extra 500 people in the UK when it opens a new London office next year

Facebook says it plans to hire 500 new employees in the UK next year, bringing its total headcount in the country to 1,500, The Telegraph reports.

Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will give a talk on Monday at the CBI annual conference in which she will go into detail on Facebook's plans for its new London headquarters.

Most of the 500 new staff members will be based in Facebook's new Fitzrovia office, BBC News reports. It's due to open next year.

Facebook provided this statement from Mendelsohn ahead of her speech:

"The UK remains one of the best places to be a tech company and is an important part of Facebook's story. We came to London in 2007 with just a handful of people, by the end of next year we will have opened a new HQ and plan to employ 1500 people. Many of those new roles will be high skilled engineering jobs as the UK is home to our largest engineering base outside of the US and is where we have developed new products like Workplace. The UK is also home to our Aquila facility in Somerset that is designing and building solar power unmanned planes that will connect remote area of the world to the internet."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan released the following statement regarding Facebook's announcement:

"Facebook's decision to expand in London is further evidence that London's strength as a tech hub keeps on growing. It follows news this week that London remains the best city in Europe for digital startups. The capital's vibrant tech scene is the envy of Europe and Facebook's continuing commitment is another sign that London is open to talent, innovation and entrepreneurship from all four corners of the world."

Facebook's announcement comes less than a week after Google CEO Sundar Pichai held an event in his company's London office in which he pledged to add 3,000 new jobs in the UK by 2020. The company is planning to build a three-office campus in the King's Cross area of London.

Google's news was merely a re-announcement of a project that it originally unveiled back in 2013, though. The fact that it was investing £1 billion into a new UK headquarters was old news, but the announcement that it planned to create 3,000 new jobs was new.