Are his first and insurance choice both in/outside the Russell Group? Because RG universities get 80% of all research funding, and basically people tend to consider them on these levels: 1. Oxbridge, 2. Russell Group, 3. Everything else. In my experience anyway.
First choice is RG, insurance isn't. It's a shame RG is so glorified since it's based on the achievements of the university rather than the quality of its teaching, but hey ho. That's life I guess. I do feel it's somewhat less gloried when you're actually there than what teachers would have you believe, though. After all - it's their job to push you in that direction. d:
As someone who was really panicked about possibly going through clearing, I would point out this - every decent University is bumping up their grade requirements next year, despite falling numbers of the higher grades being achieved. Is your friend going to achieve even higher than (s)he was predicted initially? If that answer is yes, retake the year. No? Chance it with the insurance, it's better than no place.
Are they so? That's worth noting then, as I wasn't aware of that and neither was he. If he'll achieve higher or not is uncertain, but he was predicted higher than the university's offer (which is rather rare, thinking about it...) and if his AS grades were anything to go by before this whole mess then he'd have happily hit his predicted grades. I don't doubt that, mitigating circumstances aside, he's intelligent enough to get the grades he needs even if they are bumped up.
Also, some universities get really picky about making sure you've only taken 2 years to do your A levels - Edinburgh's one I know just point blank refuses anyone who's taking over the standard 2 years.
The only ones I've seen which are fussed about that are Edinburugh, OxBridge and Imperial iirc. To my knowledge he's not been interested in any universities which complain about resits.
Hope I haven't rambled too much.
Oh, it's no bother. I appreciate it. :]