A committee of peers has issued a warning over the "rapid increase" in allergies.

The Lords science and technology committee said on Wednesday that allergies cost the NHS in England £1bn a year, while the cost to the UK economy from asthma is £2.3bn a year.

And the increasing prevalence of children with potentially fatal allergies led the committee to back a review of the case for schools holding autoinjectors to administer adrenaline to people suffering an anaphylactic shock.

The peers called for increased funding for what they described as an "epidemic", and have recommended setting up a network of specialised centres to tackle the problem.

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, chairman of the sub-committee which produced the report, said: "This phenomenon is not unique to the United Kingdom.

"Many developed countries in the western world have seen a rapid increase in the prevalence of allergic disorders in the last half century, coupled with an increasing severity and complexity of these diseases."

She said the cause of the increase was probably due to a "multitude of genetic and environmental factors".

The committee had heard repeatedly, she said, that the UK did not have enough allergy specialists.

And the committee backed a new allergy centre in every strategic health authority, to act as a centre of expertise to diagnose and treat patients and help train GPs and nurses.

The report said health regulator Nice should review the use of immunotherapy for long-term treatment of allergies.

And Baroness Finlay said the committee was "extremely alarmed" about Department of Health guidance which tells pregnant mothers not to eat peanuts.

"Academics and clinicians have told us that a growing body of evidence has suggested this guidance may not only be failing to prevent peanut allergy, but might possibly even be counterproductive," Baroness Finlay said.

And the peers said warning labels on food were "vague" and "defensive", and recommended that all packets should specify the amount of allergens contained within them.