I used SMUTTS solution and it worked for a while, probably because I do lots of motorway driving.
I did a Terraclean and that helped for a bit. I've started to use better fuel and that seems to help.
It recently returned (after a fill up of supermarket fuel!) and I couldn't clear the fault long enough to do a burn on the motorway. So this time I decided bite the bullet and clean out the EGR.
That was the right move. It is the EGR: chock full of carbon soot. It is easy to clean out; it took me 2 hours.
Before the clean, I had intermittent white smoke, and sporadic rattling and vibration in the engine, then LIMP mode (with "Check VSC" and warning lights displayed). After I cleaned it, the car was back up to power and... best of all... I didn't notice the engine.
I used these videos to work out how: