The Federal Government has cancelled its tender for a new Department of Immigration and Border Protection office, suggesting the headquarters will stay in Belconnen, in Canberra’s north.

A range of developers had been vying for the multi-million-dollar project as part of a plan to move the Border Force closer to the city’s CBD.

At the moment, all of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's 5,500 staff work in various offices located across the ACT.

The Government appears to have responded to anger at the plans from the Belconnen community, which was worried that moving the office would gut the town centre and harm local businesses.

An Immigration Department statement this week says it is not in the public interest to proceed with the consolidation plan, and it is now working on a revised tender.

“The department, in consultation with the Department of Finance, will work to develop an agreed procurement strategy to deliver a suitable long-term accommodation solution and anticipates that a new approach to market will begin shortly,” the statement said.

Speaking to ABC reporters, Belconnen Community Council member Damien Haas said it was a big win, and an outstanding show of community strength.

“It was an enormous issue. That department has been there for 30 years,” he said.

“People have built their lives, life, around where they work and where they live.

“Uprooting 4,000 people and moving them somewhere else ... that's about a third of the Belconnen Town Centre's workforce. So many local businesses would have been really impacted.”

He praised the bi-partisan lobbying that led to the Government’s backflip.

“Senator Zed Seselja has worked very hard. Andrew Leigh has been absolutely dogged in trying to hold the Government to account on the decision,” Mr Haas said.

“At Senate estimates Katy Gallagher asked some very probing questions which meant that the department knew that this wasn't an issue that was just going to be, you know ticked off and the department would move.”