One of Britain’s high street institutions has announced it may close some of its shops in the face of financial pressures.

Marks and Spencer is considering closing around 30 stores, with another 30 being downgraded to feature just food and not the company’s clothing range.

It has not yet said which towns and cities could be affected by the cutbacks.

Today shoppers in Ipswich gave their reaction to the news.

Some said while they would continue shopping at M&S if it just became a food store, they felt losing the chain in Ipswich completely would be a big blow to the town.

As well as the closures and changes to existing stores, Marks and Spencer has plans to open another 200 Simply Food outlets.