Facebook has followed Google’s lead by trumpeting plans to expand its presence in the UK — despite ongoing uncertainty over the impact of this summer’s Brexit vote for the country to leave the European Union.

Speaking at the annual CBI conference in London today, Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn, VP EMEA, announced plans for the social network to increase its UK headcount by 50 per cent by the end of 2017, and open a new HQ in the country.

Mendelsohn said the aim is to grow headcount from 1,000 to 1,500 by then — with “many” of the new jobs touted as “high skilled engineering jobs”.

“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 1,500 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,” she said, also noting the company’s presence in Somerset — where its Aquila facility is working on designing and building solar power unmanned planes to bring connectivity to remote regions.

It’s not clear exactly what proportion of the additional jobs would be engineering roles vs other jobs such as sales. We asked but the company declined to provide any further details.

Facebook’s announcement of an intention to increase UK headcount follows Google’s UK-focused publicity last week when the company re-announced a long planned expansion of its London campus — couching the move as a continued commitment to the UK in spite of Brexit.

Reporters were told that the capacity of Google’s new London HQ is 7,000 vs the 4,000 of its current building — with the implication being the company could employee 3,000 more staff in the UK by 2020. Assuming, that is, business conditions in the UK prove favorable — with CEO Sundar Pichai talking about the ‘absolute’ importance of open borders and free movement for skilled migrants. Two things that, absolutely, cannot be guaranteed, given the UK’s impending Brexit. So quite how many of those potential 3,000 additional Google UK jobs end up existing remains to be seen — like so many things affected by Brexit.

Facebook’s UK expansion plans don’t mention any specific caveats or conditions for the company to grow headcount in the country. But in related PR it also makes a point of referencing its mission to “make the world more open and connected”. Which reads like a not-so-subtle argument for the UK government to push for a ‘soft Brexit’, rather than the tough on immigration rhetoric of the hard Brexiteers.

Especially as a “plan” to add an additional 500 jobs is in no way an irreversible guarantee. So again, it remains to be seen how many of the extra Facebook jobs survive the looming Brexit negotiations.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she intends to trigger the start of the two-year negotiation process to leave the EU by the end of March 2017.

Also speaking at the CBI conference today, the Prime Minister announced a series of business-friendly measures aimed at pouring some emollient oil on the troubled waters of Brexit — including a government funding boost for R&D worth £2BN per year by 2020; and a review of the UK’s corporate tax rate, suggesting it could move to substantially cut the rate below the current 20 per cent. (Albeit, such a move could in fact complicate the UK’s Brexit negotiations — given it would likely be viewed as a hostile move by EU governments.)

Also on the table: a possible boost for R&D tax credits to further support businesses conducting research in the UK.

May also announced a new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, overseen by UK Research and Innovation and funded by some of the £2BN R&D boost — aimed at supporting the commercialization of what the government is dubbing “priority technologies”, such as robotics, biotechnology and AI.

Other emerging fields that could benefit from the new fund’s support include medical technology, satellites, advanced materials manufacturing and “other areas where the UK has a proven scientific strength and there is a significant economic opportunity for commercialisation”.

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