Google's first special hub for startup businesses in Tech City

The building, on Bonhill Street near London’s Old Street roundabout, will house 100 young businesses and will be administered by organisations such as Seedcamp and Techhub.

The Chancellor said the building, called ‘Campus’, was the result of “two years of collaboration between Google and the British Government”. He added “we salute the leadership, the creativity and the energy of everyone at Google for making this happen”.

Google’s European managing director, Matt Brittin, said the ten year lease and refurbishment on the building was “a gift from Google”, and that 800 companies had applied for a desk in the building. He added that the successful applicants were now finding it easier to grow because the project created a community and other companies wanted to see the new Google facility.

Although the seven-storey office is not on the scale of Google’s three facilities across London, it does include a series of typical Google features, including a garden with plants that tweet their water requirements and a digital plaque to celebrate its opening, which the Chancellor unveiled.

Mr Osborne said that the Government did not believe it could “flick a switch” to create a UK rival to Silicon Valley, and that the aim was to work with companies to “shine a light” on existing innovation. Tech City has grown, he said, from 200 companies to 700 in just 18 months.

The area, focused on Shoreditch and Old Street, is now home to offices funded in part by Google, Intel, Cisco, Vodafone and many smaller companies such as Airbnb as well as a Government Data Institute headed by web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

In the recent Budget, Mr Osborne introduced tax breaks for video games and confirmed investment in superfast broadband across ten major cities. He said “Google Campus will play a key role in driving this innovation – we want the UK to become a hub for technology in Europe”.

Mr Brittin said that the UK’s internet economy is growing even faster than China’s and said he hoped Campus would encourage them to aim for global success rather than merely for UK growth. He added, however, that the new office was not a vehicle for Google to add to its existing programme of acquisitions. A quarter of Google’s London employees have volunteered to mentor companies in Campus.