Freelander 2 creaking at the back

Probably a common fault that someone is going to tell me instantly what it is - but basically, if I'm doing a tight turn, and accelerating quickly from stationary, for example out of a T-junction, I'm getting creaking/grinding noises coming from the back of the car somewhere.

I mentioned it to someone in my landy club, and they said on a FL1 it's a sign that the the VCU is knackered, but before I start down that route, is this likely to be the same thing on a FL2, or is the design different and this is something else?

The FL2 doesn't have a VCU, but has an electronic controlled, torque on demand Haldex coupling instead.
It's not uncommon for these to fail, giving various symptoms, but almost always the faults are caused be lack of maintenance.
LR said the Haldex needs maintenance every 150k miles, however they don't get that far before failing.
You can test if the Haldex is the cause, simply by pulling fuse FB6 in the rear fuse box. This disables the Haldex (it does give a warning on the dash), but if the problem goes away, the Haldex is the cause.

Try servicing the Haldex first (fluid, filter, and pump screen clean), and see if the problem goes away.
If not, then you're going to need a replacement Haldex, before damage is done to the rear diff or PTU.