I am delighted to have been appointed Chair of the North West regional board and I look forward to meeting with many of you in the future.

In this issue of In Touch, Mark Hughes, CE BT Security tells us why Cyber-crime is posing a growing threat for businesses and households in the North West.

Manchester and Liverpool have also been announced as two of the first cities to benefit from major acceleration of Openreach’s ultrafast fibre broadband network. And three areas in our region have been praised for playing a leading role in Great Britain achieving the government target of 95 per cent superfast broadband coverage. There’s also news on EE’s new 4G home broadband solution which could connect more homes across the region

You can read about how residents of Cockermouth are enjoying the benefits of high-speed fibre broadband and the difference it’s making to their lives and finally how high speed fibre broadband helped deliver presents to children in Manchester.

Helen Slinger, Chair of the North West Regional Board