https://shop.essential.com/products/phone

"Essential is slashing the price of its eponymous phone, down to $499 at its website. That’s a $200 price cut from the original $699 price, less than two months after it began shipping to customers. There is really no other way to read the move except as a signal that it wasn’t selling well at $699 — especially given that the only US carrier stores it’s available in have “Sprint” above the door. It certainly doesn’t help that it now has to face the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL head-to-head."

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/22/16516828/essential-phone-price-cut-499-android

while the phone is definitely coming to the UK market, there is currently little information about exactly when. The Financial Times has managed to dig up details which suggest it will arrive by the end of 2017.