Not a lot happing in Ipswich... that isn't depressing at least, If Debenhams goes, the town is done for as M&S will probably follow suit...
Debenhams collapse (due to Arcadia hitting the wall) is fortunate for the local council. They were going to acquire the building for Debenhams... (they already secured a £1m advance from the towns fund - shows they wanted to move quickly on this) flats on top floor, music venue in the basement and offer Debenhams below market rent to keep them as an anchor store. Had it took another 6 months or a year, the council may have been left with a large empty department store and had to pay the business rates on it.
Apparently M&S owns their building but I do think they will offload the freehold if they had the chance to do so. The local council has been playing chess with M&S for a significant amount of time... they think they can out manoeuvre the retail giant. I am sure if pushed hard, they would withdraw from the area including the Martlesham Heath store (where Ipswich Borough Council is the landlord). The issue Ipswich has is locals aren't too big on Debenhams and M&S... but it attracts people from across Suffolk... losing Debenhams we will lose the more classier shopper (sad to say lol) and this means Superdry, Tessuti, and Deichmann etc will likely use their break clause.
The frustrating thing for me is this will all be blamed on covid and brexit. The town has been going this way for a long time now.