Friend in trouble deep ... new dwelling without pp! - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

I would love some advice on the following - its very close to home so difficult for me to give them unbiased advice, here goes ...

My friends bought an 11 acre small-holding 3 years ago with a mobile home that had a CLU as had been there for 20 years.  This mobile home was substandard and needed replacing and so instead of going down the normal route of applying for PP to replace the mobile home, they built a small new dwelling about 20 metres away (and had the whole process filmed by George Clarke for his TV show!!).  The idea they had was to continue to use the existing mobile home as holiday let accommodation occasionally to provide repsite for families with autistic children (they are parents to an autistic child, the main reason for moving to the countryside).  Unfortunately the stress of building a new dwelling (probably without getting the necessary permission!) has led to the separation of the family and so just the husband and two children remain.  The small-holding has various livestock and is in the process of having a solar farm built on part of it but is not profitable by any stretch of the imagination!

So I am wondering what advice to give them, the new dwelling is very inoffensive in appearance and is modest but as it has been erected in addition to the existing mobile home (obviously not on the same footprint) it would not fit the criteria for the replacement dwelling policy, nor is it needed to be part of a profitable business (as it makes a loss at the moment!).  However, there is a functional requirement to be on the land due to the livestock and incidents of thefts over the years.

Any advice would be gratefully received as I am really at a loss as to give anything positive to these people who really were just ignorant and presumed the CLU could be moved from the mobile home over to the new dwelling.

Thank you in advance, Angie