Global insurance broker Lockton has bolstered its Manchester office with a senior appointment, a move that on its surface reads as routine corporate reshuffling but which in fact speaks to a much larger story unfolding across the UK property and construction sectors. Insurance brokers do not expand regional teams without reason, and Manchester — now firmly established as the country's second commercial property hub after London — has become ground zero for a set of risk pressures that are reshaping how developers, landlords and institutional investors underwrite deals.