Facebook plans to hire 800 more employees than originally announced for a new office in London, which means the engineering hub in the UK capital will be its biggest outside the US.

In 2016 the social media giant said it would hire 500 staff for its new facility, which opened today (4 December), but the figure since went up to 1,300. The latest move will raise total number of employees in the UK as a whole to 2,300 by this time in 2018.

Facebook opened its first office in London ten years ago. Its latest facility will house developers and sales staff.

The company will also create an incubator at its new offices called Ldn Lab where start-ups can apply for three-month programmes to develop their businesses.

Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook VP for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the decision indicated the company was “more committed than ever to the UK”.

“The UK’s flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystem and international reputation for engineering excellence makes it one of the best places in the world to build a tech company,” she added.

Despite uncertainty around Brexit, US companies including Amazon and Google are ramping efforts in the UK, which may serve to reassure start-ups and venture capitalists of the opportunities in the country’s tech sector.

The commitment to increase job numbers follows scrutiny of some tech companies regarding tax payments.

For instance, Facebook paid £5.1 million in UK corporate tax in 2016, only slightly more than in 2015 despite a near four-fold increase in revenue to £842 million.