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Months of speculation over the new home for the 5,000 UK staff at Andersen Consulting, the specialist technology consultancy, is set to come to an end in a move that will also decide the future of one of the newspaper industry's most famous sites. The UK arm of Andersen Consulting is believed to be close to signing a deal to move to the former Mirror Group headquarters (above) in Holborn Circus, central London. The organisation earlier this week called in an arbitrator to resolve its long-running dispute with sister organisation Arthur Andersen. It is currently based alongside Arthur Andersen in offices off The Strand, although the two businesses have separate entrances in different streets.

The Holborn building was on a shortlist that also included Canary Wharf in London's Docklands. A deal could by finalised early in the new year. The search, which has continued for several months, has been made difficult by the fast-growing operation's combined needs for about 300,000 square feet of space and easy access to international airports.

Matters have been further complicated by the partners' known preference for a prestigious address rather than the anonymous collection of floors typically available in Docklands.

The move also ends lengthy speculation about the future of the old Mirror building, which has remained empty since the departure in the early 1990s of the media group, which owns a big stake in Newspaper Publishing, publisher of the Independent.