By Lars Mucklejohn Paragon Banking Group, one of Britain’s leading buy-to-let mortgage lenders, has reported a surge in profit and boosted its share buyback programme, despite a drop in home loan volumes as higher interest rates put off borrowers. The FTSE 250 firm posted a pretax profit of £110.6m for the six months ending on 31 March 2024, up 138 per cent from £46.4m in the same period last year. On an underlying basis, profit rose 13.5 per cent to £146.3m. Paragon announced a further £50m share buyback to reward investors, taking its full-year buyback programme to £100m. The bank has return…