In the run-up to the Budget later this month, retailers report that customers are spending less — thanks to inflation and fears about public sector job cuts.

This week the herbalist chain Culpeper has been put into administration. Its Oxford branch will close later this month.

Last week independent trader John Hudson said he planned to close his Headington discount store, Clovers, after 30 years of trading.

And earlier this year two businesses in Little Clarendon Street — Habibi and Inspires Art Gallery — closed for good.

Others in that street now considering their future — with worried owners warning of a domino effect — include Sylvester and Lacey’s clothing shop.

Nationally, with inflation now running at twice the Bank of England’s target, that bellweather of retail performance, John Lewis, is now reporting falling sales at its department stores following the VAT increase at the start of the year —-though rising food prices have helped boost takings at its Waitrose stores. Primark has also just suffered its first slowdown in trade for five years.

Now Oxfordshire business leaders are joining the British Chambers of Commerce in calling on chancellor George Osborne to delay or even scrap planned new employment regulations such as a carbon reduction commitment tax due from April 2012.

They say they need a break after being hit not only by the VAT increase but also by the rising minimum wage and increases in business rates and national insurance.

Oxford shopkeepers also complain of rent hikes imposed by landlords, including the city council, increased parking charges in the city and now spiralling petrol prices.

Mortons, the famous cafe in the city’s Covered Market, is facing a 60 per cent rent hike from its City Council landord on one of its units.

Tenants Jim Kinniburgh and Craig Muir have taken the matter to arbitration.

Their appeal was heard on December 23 and they are now waiting for the arbitrators’ decision. Mr Muir said: “I can’t comment while we are awaiting arbitration because the case is sensitive.”

But the leader of the Covered Market Traders’ Association, Chris Farron, of the Cake Shop, said: “We are all watching this case carefully as it could set a precedent for us all.

“Three years ago the council wanted to raise rents by up to 180 per cent, but after arbitration the average increase was just 35 per cent. But one of the units that Mortons occupies fell outside that review for various historical reasons.”

He added that one of most prominent units — at the heart of the historic Covered Market — still remains empty a year after its former occupant, Palms Delicatessen, closed.

Mr Farron and other market traders have dressed the windows of the unit to make it look more cheerful.

He said: ”The council is asking £40,000 a year rent for the unit, up from the £25,000 that Palms was paying, but has not let it so far. That is a lot of money. When you add it to business rates, it means you need to be making £1,000 a week before you can do anything else — like pay staff.”

He said: “We are independent traders and many of us cannot afford staff. That means that now we are open on Sundays we work a seven day week. It’s not easy. But the council is more reasonable than it used to be. At least they have regular meetings with us — and will discuss anything as long as it doesn’t cost money.

“For instance they agreed to promote the market, but this year would not even contribute to Christmas lights as they used to do.”

He added: “The trouble is that the council is not commercially minded. They take what they think is the easy option to raise money, by raising rents. But they don’t realise that a time comes when that doesn’t work. And I think we have reached that time.”

Graham Jones, spokesman for pressure group ROX (Rescue Oxford), also accused the council of short sightedness by raising parking charges in the city.

He said: “Putting up parking charges has done nobody any good. Not even the city council, because its takings from car parks have gone down — as customers decide it is simply too expensive to park in them.”

He added: “I am aware Oxford has a robust economy. But I am also aware that it is dependent on many jobs being in the public sector in which cuts are expected.

”And now, with the crisis in the Middle East pushing up petrol prices, and adding to inflation, there is a lot of nervousness about.”

A spokesman for Oxford City Council said: "The empty unit in the Covered Market is being marketed on our behalf by Marriotts.

“We have had interest from a variety of prospective tenants, although our target market is constrained due to our desire to support existing traders in line with the agreed lettings strategy. As good estate management practice as landlords we carry out periodic rent reviews on our properties.

“The council always seeks to secure the appropriate level of rental income from the properties in the Covered Market and throughout its portfolio."

Chairman of the Oxfordshire branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, Margaret Coles, said: “The Budget must provide economic stability and look to ways to nurture entrepreneurship and allow small firms to grow in order to create employment opportunities.”

But in spite of all adversties, Oxford retailers remain a cheerful bunch.

Mr Jones told me sales during half-term week had been encouraging. Personally, I drove to Pear Tree Park and Ride, found it full, and went shopping in Witney instead.