Collapsing clips and transforming without affecting the layer below

I am aware that there are seemingly dozens of posts on this but after all of the googling nothing seems to work.

What I have is a background video track on V1. Nothing on V2. A lower third paint effect background on V3. And a text layer with the lower third name on in V4.

What I want to be able to do is group the text and text background layers together and slowly expand them, without affecting the background layer on V1.

For all of the 'stepping in', 'collapsing' and everything else I'm reading about nothing seems to work.

Is there a way for this to be achieved?

Thanks