We own a few acres of green belt land, which contains some fairly newly-built barns, and we keep cows.

We would like to a build a house to live on site, as well as move a home business (along the arty lines) to be based on the same site; which we’ve heard can be a good thing for planning consent.

However, we are scared of signing over deeds to existing buildings/land and putting ourselves at risk of losing it should any financial difficulties arise.

I understand that you are supposed to keep the deeds of the building plot and barns together for 25 years. Is this true – and are there any ways of separating the deeds? Or is there another route we could take to minimise risk?

Either way, what would or options be for financing this project? Many thanks.