Amazon to double R&D staff in London as it opens new HQ

Amazon has opened its new London HQ in a 15-storey building in Shoreditch and says it will increase the number of research & development staff it employs in the capital from 450 to 900.

The e-commerce giant has taken over all 15 floors of the Principal Place building which covers 600,000 sq ft, and has pledged to increase its overall staff numbers in the UK to 24,000 by the end of the year. The business claims to have invested £6.4bn in the UK since 2010 and says it will create 5,000 new permanent roles this year.

"London is one of the world’s truly great cities and home to some of the most talented, creative people on the planet, and we are delighted to provide our teams of innovators with a new, purpose-built workplace,” said Amazon UK country manager Doug Gurr.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan commented: "This is the latest in a long line of recent major investments in London by global tech firms over the last year, and shows once more that our great city is the tech capital of Europe."

Just last month Yoox Net-A-Porter Group opened its new tech hub in White City, which will employ 500 staff, and young fashion etailer ASOS has also pledged to increase staff numbers at its Camden HQ from 2,500 to 4,000 over the next three years. In the wider tech field both Facebook and Google have said they would create thousands of new tech jobs in the UK capital in the near future.