The Chancellor said that local authorities would be provided with a £300-millon fund to deliver discretionary relief in local areas. However, West Devon Borough Council said it had been given no detail of how the discretionary fund would work.

Despite the announcement, business leaders in Tavistock are warning that the package is not enough.

Robin Rich, chair of Tavistock Business Improvement District (BID), said: ‘What has been offered is something and some small businesses will get the tremendous boost of paying nothing from April, but it doesn’t get away from the fact that a lot of businesses are up against it.

‘Overheads are spiralling but footfall is falling. We remain absolutely focused on ideas for getting people to come into Tavistock and realise what a fantastic town it is.

‘With 17 units in town empty at the moment, we have to come up with ideas to drive an increase in footfall.’

Mr Rich said business rate rises, coupled with the controversial proposed rise in National Insurance rates for self-employed people, were having a ‘detrimental effect around the country’.

However, he said businesses in Tavistock had the drive to ride out the current difficulties.

‘The business rate situation needs total reform, really. We need a level playing field. There is nothing in the Budget whatsoever to drive people into our towns – so we have to do it ourselves and Tavistock has got the drive and determination to do it.’

Rising overheads have been cited as factors in two of the most recent business closure announcements.

At Past and Present, in Brook Street, owner Joanne Cooper said: ‘The rise in business rates was definitely a factor in deciding to close.’

And Payless Discount Store, in Duke Street, which will close at the end of March, said in a post on Facebook: ‘The ever increasing costs of our overheads, coupled with a drop in customers in recent years, has resulted in our business model becoming unsustainable.’

Business owner Keith Hall, of Dartmoor Photographic, was also not impressed with the announcement. He said that he lost the business rate relief last year and this year his rates had increased by £1,000.

‘Our shop is larger than our neighbours’,’ he said, ‘but some shops are smaller but make more money. We have to pay £8,000 in business rates this year and we don’t get anything for it. With that money we could pay to employ another member of staff or upgrade our equipment.’

Mr Hall said that the way the rates were calculated were ‘totally wrong’ and he would be more than happy to pay the difference in rates between smaller shops and his rather than the current situation.

He added: ‘This is going to kill the independent stores.’

Mike Harper, chair of the Tavistock and District Chamber of Commerce, said: ‘We all need to sit down and discuss the way forward.

‘We all need to work closely together to help Tavistock to be a thriving market town.’

Meetings were due to take place last night and today (Thursday) between the chamber and borough council officials and between Tavistock Bid and the chamber.